Lot 48: POSTER: FRANZ GRIESSLER (1897-?) COTTAGE BAR. Circa 1920s. 37x24 inches. Paul Gerin, Vienna.

FRANZ GRIESSLER (1897-?) COTTAGE BAR. Circa 1920s.
37 1/8x24 5/8 inches. Paul Gerin, Vienna.
Condition A-: minor repaired tears in margins and along vertical and horizontal folds.
Franz Griessler studied painting in Vienna and designed his first poster after World War I. He opened a design studio in partnership with Gewista, a large outdoor advertising agency, for which he produced a number of good and successful campaigns. For unexplained reasons he left Austria in 1947 and is believed to have died in Honolulu in the 1970s. Curiously, different cities developed radically different approaches towards caberet posters. Parisian cabarets are portrayed as being lighthearted and joyful. Nightclubs in Berlin are depicted in a rougher, and far less humorous manner. And cabaret advertising in Vienna and Munich took an intriguingly decadent slant. This poster echoes the spirit of Walter Schnackenberg, king of the decadent cabaret posters. It depicts a strange, almost clownish character, leering over the shoulder of a young lady, who, on the contrary, has a simple and charming appearance. Engulfed in a voluminous fur stole, her arm cleverly splits the image in half, and an oversized cocktail glass completes the composition. Not previously referenced.

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