Iris - 1898

VINTAGE ITALIAN POSTER - GICLÉE PRINT

This vintage Italian poster is an example of "Affiche Artistique", advertising the opera "Iris".   The poster artist is Adolfo Hohenstein, published in 1898. 

Dimensions:  9.5" x 24"

Artists in the late 1800s found opportunities to present their work to the masses through advertising art that began to appear as billboards and posters, plastering the streets of Paris.  “Affiche Artistique” was the term that the French used to describe a poster that contained artistic expression.  The art was so impressive to the public, people began to collect the posters as soon as they went up, which is why they are so scarce today.  Artists such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Jules Chéret, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Pierre Bonnard and Eugène Grasset contributed to the creative body of work that became what some called  “a free museum for the masses”.  The craze for collecting these examples of modern art was even given the name, "affichomanie", meaning “artistic poster mania”.  Collectors today pay hundreds, if not thousands for original prints of these rare posters. 

We offer these exceptional vintage poster reproductions in the highest possible print quality.  Superior to most reproductions currently available on the market, our gallery quality prints are suitable for display in an art gallery or museum.  We begin with an ultra high resolution scan of the original artifact which we leave untouched, leaving intact the slightly distressed vintage character desirable in a collectible piece of this era.  Our state of the art, giclée reproduction process uses the latest technology: microscopic droplets of ink that render such a high resolution, that every minute detail of the original is intact.  Every pen line and brush stroke is visible.  Even very faint pencil lines are also visible due to the incredibly high quality of the reproduction process.  Our 8 color, archival quality inks and giclée printing process provide the most accurate color reproduction & are proven to last over a hundred years. Posters are available printed on museum quality archival paper or on repositionable media that allow you to plaster your walls with the “Affiche Artistique”, just as they were originally intended to be displayed. 

About the artist:

Adolfo Hohenstein
German, (1854 – 1928)

Considered one of the most important Italian poster designers of the late 1800s, Adolfo Hohenstein was born to German parents in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1854.  His father’s work as a forest engineer allowed the family to travel extensively and young Adolf spent much of his youth in Vienna, where he studied design.  He traveled to India and worked as a decorator for nobility as a young man.
At age twenty-five, he moved to Milan, Italy, where he began work as a designer of costumes and sets for several theatres.  He designed posters for numerous operas and theatrical events, becoming the artistic director for the Ricordi Graphical Workshops in 1889.  His work was exhibited in Milan at the Esposizioni Riunite in 1894. 
Hohenstein made a permanent move back to Germany in 1906, settling in Bonn and becoming associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, with several exhibitions of his work presented in Düsseldorf from 1911 until 1918.  He died in Bonn in 1928.