Emil CARDINAUX

Emil Cardinaux, born in Bern in 1877, is one of the most important founders of the art of posters in Switzerland. After studying fine art in Munich, Cardinaux moved permanently in Switzerland and worked as a landscape painter.

In 1908, Emil Cardinaux designed the first "modern" tourism poster.

The Swiss government commissioned him to design a poster to promote the Matterhorn and Zermatt. Inspired by the paintings of Ferdinand Hodler, he freed the tourist poster from all realistic constraints and created a new, simpler and more dynamic graphic language. A monument to the glory of the Matterhorn, the image is reduced to its simplest expression, with no excess detail to hide the aesthetic value of its subtle play of colours, achieved through the exceptional quality of the lithographic printing process. A luminous, flamboyant Matterhorn overlooks a valley plunged into shadow.

This avant-garde poster revolutionised the representation of the tourist poster, influencing many Swiss artists and graphic designers and making Emil Cardinaux known internationally.

In addition to the Swiss tourist posters, Emil Cardinaux collaborated among others for the shoe brand "Bally" (1920), the chocolates "Villars" and "Tobler" (Toblerone).