Chaussures Americaines

Artist Ludwig Hohlwein Germany, 1874 - 1949

Printer J.E. Wolfensberger Zürich

Datec. 1910

MediumStone Lithograph

Dimensions49 x 37 1/2 in. (124.5 x 95.3 cm)

ClassificationsPoster

Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection

Terms

Object numberPH.5723

DescriptionThis design for the Zürich shoe store Dosenbach (still in operation today) is one of several commissions Ludwig Hohlwein received from Swiss stores early in his career. These commissions were probably arranged by the Zürich printer J. E. Wolfsenberger, who printed all the designer’s Swiss posters and was establishing himself at this time as an art printer and publisher. In this subtle image, Hohlwein produces an extraordinary range of effects and textures with a limited color palette. He presents a well-dressed couple sitting on a wall, dangling their legs as they show off their new shoes in an advertisement for the store’s American shoe brands Walk-Over (also still in existence today) and Sorois shoes (“intelligently made Safe Shoes” for women manufactured by A.E. Little of Lynn, Massachusetts since 1897). The man’s casual pose suggests a certain kind of American ease that might have seemed exciting to more formal Swiss sensibilities.

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