This vintage Pontresina Diavolezza poster is Martin Peikert at his purest and personally for me his absolute best! There’s no glamorous woman featured here. No light-hearted poses and no humor. Just an absolutely stunning image of the snow-covered slopes of Piz Palü in the Rhaetian Alps. The vintage Swiss travel poster was produced in 1960 to promote the Diavolezza ski resort.
Peikert has captured the nearly 4000-meter mountain between the aurora of a fantastically rich blue sky and its reflection in the icy cold waters of Lago Bianco. The famous artist has depicted the Diavolezza cable car station on the edge of the 3.5km long Palü Glacier with the cable car itself pictured high up in the mountains.
The cable car journey starts from Val Bernina in the Bernina Pass valley and climbs to almost 3000 meters above sea level. At the top, there is a restaurant with a panoramic terrace and a hotel.
The resort of Diavolezza gets its name from an ancient legend about a beautiful flame-haired mountain nymph. According to the legend, unwary hunters would follow the ‘she-devil’ temptress, only to disappear forever.
Other Martin Peikert Travel Posters
The highly respected Swiss painter and poster artist Martin Peikert is the artist behind this fabulous MOB, Montreux Bernese Oberland skiing poster. Peikert is well known for the realism and precision of his wonderful poster illustrations. He created dozens of travel posters and skiing posters for ski resorts across the Alps.
Some of his best-known and most popular posters include his Gstaad poster featuring a couple on a ski lift heading towards ‘the moon’. His poster advertising St Moritz with a cable car heading towards the snow-covered mountain peak.
For many of his posters, Peikert used his first wife Henriette as his muse and model. One example is his Les Diablerets poster featuring a skier being pulled up a ski slope with a sprite of her shoulders. One features her travelling to a ski resort on the roof of the MOB Railway and another MOB Railway poster shows her asleep on the roof of a small Swiss chalet. One of his best in my opinion is his iconic Champery ski poster of a woman relaxing in the snow.
Peikert is well-known for the use of trademark characters on many of his posters. For example, the flute playing sprite on several of his Les Diablerets travel posters. It must have been difficult to not portray his wife as the legendary red-headed she-devil the resort is named after!
