Lot 34: OTTO FLECHTNER (1881-1952) CAFE & WEIN : RESTAURANT SERENISSMUS. 1910.

46 1/4x35 1/2 inches. J. G. Velích, Munich.
Condition B+: minor tears and creases in left and right margins; vertical and horizontal folds.
Flechtner was a painter and an illustrator, who designed only two posters for Munich cafés. This image, which must have been intended as an inside joke, shows two members of the upper class entering the café, giving the impression that it is a very elegant establishment. Either royalty, high ranking diplomats or generals, they are virtually tripping over each other with the formality, politeness and gentility of precedence. Upon reading the text, however, we are informed that it is an "artist's cabaret", meaning that whatever waits for these men inside certainly will be of a different, lower caliber than the "high class" profile they suggest! DFP III, 913.