Date: 1914 (original, larger sized poster printed in 1905)
Size: 10.25 x 14 inches, Image: 10.25 x 5.25 inches
Artist: Marcelo Dudovich
About the artist: Marcello Dudovich (Trieste, 21 March 1878 – Milan, 31 March 1962) was an Italian advertiser and painter. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolf Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni and Leopoldo Metlicovitz he was one of the fathers of modern Italian advertising poster design.
About this piece: This beautiful poster belongs to the Portfolio "Gli Avvisi delle Officine G. Ricordi e C. Milano" (The Advertisements of the G. Ricordi & Co. Graphics Works, Milan) a famous and rare collection published around 1914, inspired by the famous French publication Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. The complete collection contains 70 color lithographic plates (chromolithographs) in a reduced size format. It represents an extraordinary testament to the golden age of the Italian advertising poster and Art Nouveau (Liberty style) graphics, closely tied to the world of opera and the Ricordi music publishing house.
Originally designed around 1906 by the master illustrator Marcello Dudovich, this lithograph advertising children's clothing ("Abiti per Bambini") holds an incredibly important place in Italian graphic arts: it was Dudovich's very first poster commission for the E. & A. Mele & Ci. department store in Naples!
