Ricordi - Savoia Film Torino Pl. 56

In 1914, Ricordi introduced a commemorative series called Ricordi Portfolio, which includes 70 small lithographic plates of its best designs between 1895 and 1914. This series was put together by Adolfo Hohenstein, and includes artists like Aleardo Villa, Marcello Dudovich, Leopoldo Metlicovitz, and Franz Laskoff. In the lead of Adolfo Hohenstein, this group of artists brought Art Nouveau, known as Stile Liberty in Italy, to a world class level. Much like Maitres de l’Affiche ("Masters of the Posters") curated by Jules Cheret in France, Ricordi Portfolio celebrates the rise of posters in Italy. Many of the images in this series are so rare that they cannot be found in other format.
Founded in 1808, Casa Ricordi is an Italian publisher of primarily classical music and opera. In the 1870s, the publishing company opened an in-house lithography shop to print materials promoting its operas and sheet music business. Quickly, the printmaking shop became a leading lithographer in Italy and by 1895, it started to create posters for outside companies like Campari, the Italian film industry, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, and the Mele Department store of Naples. The poster art in Italy was almost single-handedly developed by Ricordi.

This poster was designed by Achille Mauzan to promote the Turin based film company named Savoia. Although the company only lasted for eight years from 1911 to 1918, it had its greatest development in the years immediately prior to the war, a period in which it became one of the main publishers. During its active years, it left us many great works, including this simple yet intriguing poster.

Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883-1952) is known as a decorative illustrator designing during the Art Deco movement in addition to being a painter and a sculptor. For a period of time he studied in the Ecole des Beauz-Arts at Lyon, France, and spent the rest of his life in Milan, Paris and Buenos Aires. During the war time, he used forms and materials under the influence of the avant-garde cubists. Mauzan is a prolific poster printer, having designed over 2,000 posters and over 1,000 postcard images. His works often use humor and brilliant colors for advertisement and events. He made several important posters for the Italian film industry in Turin, and then went to work at Ricordi music publishing house from 1912 to 1917 before opening his own publishing house in 1926.

This is an Original Poster; it is not a reproduction. This poster is printed on heavy weight paper, and in excellent condition. We guarantee the authenticity of all of our posters.