Grand Hotel des Rasses Sainte-Croix Poster – Jules Courvoisier – 1916
As the name suggests, the Grand Hôtel des Rasses when it was built during the golden age of tourism, was a truly spectacular 44 bedroom hotel. The Grand Hôtel grew to be a first-class oasis in the Swiss mountains. Nestled at an altitude of 1,200m, it is located in the idyllic setting of the Balcony of the Vaud Jura. Not that you can tell any of this from the 1916 vintage skiing poster advertising the Belle Epoque-styled Swiss hostelry.
Many hotels of the period used posters to advertise and promote their venues, services and facilities. Great examples include the 1905 poster for the Grand Hotel Belvedere in Davos created by Hans Eggimann and the 1913 print for the Gstaad Royal Hotel & Winter Palace by Carl Pellegrini. This Grand Hotel des Rasses poster was created by the Swiss-born artist Jules Courvoisier. Instead, of portraying the hotel, the artist chose to depict an image of a telemark skier mid-jump. The bold and striking poster features the skier in a bright red jumpsuit and bobblehat about to land a long jump. The poster explains that the winter destination lies at an altitude of 1200 meters. It also advises that visitors take the train to Gare Sainte-Croix (Ste Croix Railway Station) in the heart of Jura landscape. At the foot of the poster the strapline reads; “Station climaterique et sportive ideale” which translates into English as “Ideal climatic and sports resort.”
The Grand Hotel des Rasses
Today the Grand Hôtel des Rasses enjoys a privileged location, a few metres from the ski slopes. For skiing and snowboarding, there are nine ski-lifts to take you to over 20km of slopes situated between the elevations of 1,150 and 1,580m, offering skiers and snowboarders a 433 m vertical drop. Rambling and cycling in the natural surroundings of the Jura meadows prevail in the summer.
Sainte–Croix has welcomed skiers for over a hundred and twenty years. The hotel complex is now listed and protected in the cantonal register of monuments.In 2019 the Grand Hotel in Rasses became the proud recipient of the “Historic Hotel of the Year 2019″.
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.
