Breuil-Cervinia Aosta Vintage Skiing Poster – Musati – 1953
This vintage skiing poster is not only one of the most popular Cervinia skiing posters. it is also one of the most famous skiing posters of all time. The artwork was created by the renowned Italian poster artist Arnaldo Musati to promote the Breuil-Cervinia alpine ski resort that is located in the Aosta Valley region of northwest Italy.
Musati’s stunning illustration depicts a young woman who has been transported up the mountainside by cable car. Now she’s finally on the piste and exudes the joy that can only be had from being away from work for a week to ski! She stands with her arms raised to the sun, with a huge beaming smile on her face, she greets the resort-like a long-lost friend. Her appearance recalls the quote from the poet Lord Byron ‘Happy is he who on these mountains could rest for a long time. Happy is the one who sees them again if he had to leave them’. Well, this woman is happy and ready for some skiing fun!
In the background, the chalets and hotels in the village of Cervinia lie at the foot of the mountain Lord Byron called “the most noble rock of Europe” – The Matterhorn.
The artist behind the Breuil-Cervinia Poster
Arnaldo Musati was born in Varallo Sesia in 1916. He was a self-taught painter and artist who dedicated himself to the design of posters and advertising prints in the years immediately following the Second World War. Later, Musati moved to Aosta where he opened a studio and created many of the posters advertising the winter resorts throughout the valley: Cervinia, Pila, La Thuile, Cogne, and Aosta-Gran San Bernardo.
Several of his posters including the Cervinia, his Valle d’Aosta poster and the poster promoting the Diadernina poster all feature joyous women with their arms raised to the sky.
Today he is considered by many to be one of the best Italian poster designers of the early 1950s and some of his works rival in beauty and style with the works of the more successful Boccasile, Dudovich, and Cappiello.
The Matterhorn
Mont Cervin or Monte Cervino as the Matterhorn is known in France and Italy is one of the most distinctive and famous mountains in the world. Rising to 4478 meters, the almost perfectly formed natural pyramid shape looks as though it would have been the perfect inspiration for the Egyptians. In fact, geologists have determined the peak of the Matterhorn is actually African rock. The mountain is the result of a collision between the African and European continental plates, millions of years ago.
The golden age of Alpinism is often considered to be the period from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It was a period of mountain climbing dominated by British alpinists and their Swiss and French guides. The first alpine mountain to be conquered was the Königspitze in the Ortler Alps in 1854. Mont Blanc was conquered in 1855. The Aiguille du Midi and Mönch were beaten in 1856 and 1857 respectively. 1858 saw the conquering of the Dom, Eiger, Hinterer Brochkogel, Nadelhorn, Piz Morteratsch, Vorderer Brochkogel, Wildstrubel mountains. Over the next decade, there was a race to climb them all. By 1865 the first ascents of 65 mountain peaks, stretching from Mont Blanc to the Dolomites, had been ascended.
The Matterhorn remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained. The mountain became the subject of an international competition to be the first to reach the summit. Several attempts were made but success eluded everybody. At the time the mountain was widely considered to be unconquerable.
This was to change in 1865 when its famous peak was finally climbed for the first time, and the legend of the Matterhorn was born. On July 14, 1865, a party of seven climbers set out to reach the summit. After days of difficult ascent, they made it. Among the climbers was Edward Whymper, a renowned mountaineer who had already attempted the climb seven times.
However, the descent from the Matterhorn proved to be even more treacherous than the climb. As the climbers began to make their way down, one of them lost his footing and slid down the mountain, taking three other climbers with him. All four men fell to their deaths, becoming some of the first recorded fatalities on the Matterhorn. Despite this tragic outcome, Whymper and his remaining companions were hailed as heroes for their successful ascent of one of the most challenging peaks in the Alps. The first ascent of the Matterhorn remains one of the most famous feats in mountaineering history. As one of the last of the main Alpine mountains to be ascended, it marked the end of the golden age of alpinism.
Just conquering the mountain wasn’t enough. The next challenge was to climb the separate faces. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is among the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as “The Trilogy”. The west face, which is the highest of the Matterhorn’s four faces, was only completely climbed in 1962. Today, the Matterhorn tops the ‘must do’ list of thousands of climbers who aspire to climb it each year with almost two million visitors arrive at Zermatt annually.
Other Matterhorn vintage travel posters
Such was the popularity and world interest during the golden age of Alpinism and the early part of the twentieth century that the Matterhorn has been a popular subject for travel posters for over a century. Since then, the Matterhorn has been featured on posters promoting everything from Swiss and Italian tourism to early 20th-century railway lines.
Here at Heritage-Posters.co.uk the earliest travel poster we currently have featuring the legendary Alpine mountain is one created for the PLM French Railways by Hugo d’Alesi for the Mont Cervin Mont Rose resort in 1894. A beautiful and picturesque scene of the village of Zermatt and the Matterhorn features on the Zermatt Matterhorn poster illustrated by François Gos in 1900. Another poster dating from the same year by Louis Trinquier-Trianon depicts a couple of horse riding tourists talking to locals in the village of Le Cervin with the snow-covered mountain featured in the background.
The mountain is visible from many parts of Switzerland and Italy, and its snow-capped peak is an impressive sight. One of the most famous Italian vintage travel posters featuring the Matterhorn is the art deco styled 1930 poster titled The Valley of Aosta by the Italian artist Giuseppe Magagnoli better known as Maga.Other posters include Emil Cardinaux’s Zermatt Matterhorn 1908 and Carl Moos 1933 Zermatt lithographic print.
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £15. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
