Anton RECKZIEGEL

The Master of the bucolic poster

A Czech-born lithographer, Anton Reckziegel began his apprenticeship with Conrad Jäger, a printer in Proschwitz (Germany), and then with a landscape painter at the Akademie Graz, Austria. In 1892, Anton Reckziegel moved to Switzerland. He first worked in Aarau as a draughtsman for the graphic arts company Müller & Co (Müller & Trüb from 1895), and then moved to Bern in 1898. Thanks to his training as a landscape painter, he designed posters, flyers and postcards for the Hubacher & Co. lithographic studio, where he distinguished himself with his fine posters. His realistic depictions of landscapes and holiday resorts and his pastoral and romantic sceneries made Anton Reckziegel the undisputed specialist in Swiss tourist posters of the Belle Epoque. His posters for the "Chemins de fer électriques de la Gruyère" (1903), for example, as well as those for "Zermatt" (1902) and "Les Rochers de Naye sur Montreux" (1902), bear witness to this. His realistic and bucolic approach to posters is similar to that of the French poster designer Hugo d'Alési, from whom he undoubtedly drew inspiration.