Artist · 6 prints
Leopoldo Metlicovitz Prints
About Leopoldo Metlicovitz
Leopoldo Metlicovitz was an Italian poster artist and illustrator, born in Trieste in 1868, who died at his villa in Ponte Lambro in 1944. As a teenager he worked as an assistant lithographer at a printing shop in Udine, where he caught the eye of the music publisher Giulio Ricordi, who invited him to Milan.
At Ricordi's printing works, Metlicovitz first transferred other artists' designs onto lithographic stone, the slab used to print colour posters, and soon began producing designs of his own. He became one of the leading Italian poster artists of the Art Nouveau years. His best-known works include posters for Puccini's operas Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926), and the poster for the 1906 Milan exhibition celebrating the opening of the Simplon railway tunnel through the Alps, chosen by the exhibition's organising committee.
Leopoldo Metlicovitz prints: reproductions of Italian Art Nouveau posters by Leopoldo Metlicovitz, the lithographic poster designer who worked for the Ricordi printing house in Milan. The collection includes Madama Butterfly: Tragedia giapponese, Inaugurazione del Sempione: Esposizione Internazionale, Milano 1906 (1906), Splendor: Petrolio Extra Raffinato (1926) and E. & A. Mele, Napoli: Novità per l'Estate.
This selection covers the main kinds of poster Metlicovitz made: opera, a world's fair, and advertising for shops and products. The Simplon poster marks the opening of the railway tunnel through the Alps, the Madama Butterfly poster was made for Puccini's opera, and the Mele and Splendor posters advertise summer fashions and lamp oil. Others were made for the newspaper La Sera and for La Colonia Libera. Most combine large figures with Italian lettering.
The posters suit living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and entrance halls, and the larger designs work above a sofa or sideboard. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
