Grindelwald Skiing Poster – Herbert Leupin – 1946
This vintage Grindelwald Skiing Poster by Herbert Leupin is a delightfully retro piece of poster art.
It features a jolly concierge standing beneath a snow-topped Grindelwald railway platform sign. The hotel representative is raising his cap to greet us as we step off the railway platform. He has brought his sled to transport us to our place of lodgings.
The poster’s yellow to white graduated background evokes the winter sun in the sky and the crisp white powder underfoot. Leupin’s light-hearted image also includes ski tracks to emphasise the Grindelwald resort’s main winter sports activity, skiing.
Grindelwald is a Swiss Alpine village in Berne. It lies in the glacially carved Grindelwald valley flanked by the Eiger and Wetterhorn mountains. The region became popular with visitors towards the end of the 19th century. The town’s notoriety gained public attention as more and more Englishmen visited the area to climb the alpine peaks around the valley.
It was a period that is now called the golden age of alpinism and by 1900, The Finsteraarhorn, the Wetterhorn, the Eiger, the Schreckenhorn and the Gross Fiescherhorn had all been climbed. The building of the Grindelwald road between 1860 and 1872 and the introduction of the Bernese Oberland Railway to the village in 1890 transformed the region.
Tourists began to flood into Grindelwald. In 1888, Grindelwald was the first resort in the Bernese Oberland to also become a winter destination, with popular winter sports such as sleigh rides, curling, skating and, from 1891, skiing. Just a year after the first resort opened in 1888, there were 10 hotels in Grindelwald. By 1914 this number had risen to thirty three.
The Grindelwald Skiing Poster was designed in 1946 for the Berner Oberland Schweiz, known in other countries as Oberland Bernois Suisse and the Bernese Oberland Switzerland – the Swiss National Railways. Original copies of this poster fun Grindelwald Skiing Poster command prices in excess of £1,500.
Herbert Leupin Grindelwald poster artist
Herbert Leupin was born in Beinwil Aam See in 1916. He was a Swiss graphic designer and is probably better known for prolific commercial poster designs than his travel and skiing posters. Leupin’s reputation was made through his realistic poster designs advertising a wide range of consumer goods.
Over his career, Leupin produced nearly 1000 posters. He was the most prolific, award-winning and influential of the Swiss Graphic designers. Amongst many other accolades, he won the Swiss Poster of The Year awards 85 times and ten of his poster are on permanent display in the Museum of Modern Art. His work included poster adverts for companies including the German cigarette manufacturer Reemtsma, the Milka chocolate manufacturers, Bell the Swiss charcuterie chain, Renault cars and Pantene.
Leupin is widely considered to be one of the most important European graphic designers of the 20th century.
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 £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
