Wengen La Patrie Des Bons Skieurs vintage skiing poster
As if it were needed this poster is proof positive that Martin Peikert was head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries. It also perhaps helps men to understand what goes on inside a women’s head!
Peikert’s clever illustration depicts the silhouette of a young woman’s head. It is tilting backward slightly as though she is breathing in the crisp, cool, fresh Swiss air. The head is set against a blue and grey mottled background that suggests she has her head in the clouds. Inside the headspace is a winter landscape scene that depicts five skiing racing down the steep slopes of the snow-covered Lauberhorn countryside.
Behind the skiers, Peikert has included the famous red train of the Wengernalp Railway. The train, carrying skiers, tourists and locals, is making its way up the same steep mountainside, heading towards Kleine Scheidegg. In the distance, the familiar pyramid-like shape of the Mönch mountain creates the perfect backdrop. The text on the poster reads; Wengen. La Patrie Des Bons Skieurs or ‘The Home of Good Skiers’.
If you like your art to be unique, you’ll love this poster! It’s a real mix of figurative, surreal and abstract styles and would make a great conversation piece. It’s a fantastic piece of art and is popular among collectors. In fact, in Garde A condition, original copies currently (2022) sell for, in the region of, £2,500!
The high prices of many original vintage posters stops most of us from being able to purchase them. Fortunately, our superb high-quality reproduction copies are a perfect alternative. They offer the same great look at a fraction of the cost and while they are not originals they still look fantastic when framed. Whether you’re looking to decorate your living room or give your office a makeover, this elegant Wengen poster is perfect to hang on your wall.
Wengen, The Home of Good Skiers
Wengen is famously home to the Lauberhorn ski races. Skiers have been hitting the slopes of the Lauberhorn for over a century. The first recorded ski race on the mountain was held in 1912, when the Roberts of Kandahar Ski Challenge Cup was offered. The race quickly gained popularity, and by 1927 it was simply known as the Lauberhorn Ski Cup.
The Lauberhorn downhill is truly a feat of endurance and skill and to this day the Lauberhorn downhill reigns as the oldest, longest, fastest, and arguably the most beautiful course on the World Cup circuit. Each year dozens of racers stand in the tiny wooden hut at the top of the course taking in the stunning views before focussing on the course’s challenging terrain. It’s one of the most iconic downhill skiing courses in the world.
With its unrivaled combination of speed and technical difficulty, this legendary course has enthralled skiers and spectators alike for decades. The course winds its way down the mountain over a total distance of nearly six kilometers, featuring a grueling array of high-speed turns, tight switchbacks, and imposing jumps including the course’s signature jump, the Hundschopf. It’s a breathtaking jump – in the shadow of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau – has kept spectators returning year after year.
In a competition that has been been contested for more than 90 years the Wengen Downhill FIS World Cup race has featured almost all of the World’s best downhill skiers. Take a look here at the list of winners over the years and you’ll have to agree, that if there’s one thing Wengen can say about itself is that it is The Home of Good Skiers.
The early growth of Wengen Ski Resort
The vintage print was produced to promote winter tourism to Wengen. The small town of Wengen sits in the heart of the Jungfrau Region. It is located above the Lauterbrunnen valley, opposite Mürren, and on the other side of the Männlichen ridge from Grindelwald. For centuries the tiny village has been an alpine farming community.
The village began to become popular in the mid-1800s. It came about when Switzerland’s scenery was so vividly described in two publications in 1817. The first was Mary & Percy Shelley’s travel narrative, History of a Six Weeks’ Tour. In which, Mary, the author of the Gothic novel Frankenstein and her husband, Percy, one of England’s major romantic poets, extolled the virtues of the Bernese Oberland countryside. The second was the publication of a dramatic poem, titled Manfred, by the English poet and peer, Lord Byron.
By the end of the 1800s, Wengen had grown to include several guesthouses and hotels and a railway station. The opening of the Wengernalpbahn made the village more accessible to tourists, opening the area for expansion in the wake of the ever-growing interest, mainly from the British, in mountain climbing and winter sports.
Other vintage posters by Martin Peikert
The highly respected Swiss painter and poster artist Martin Peikert is the artist behind this fabulous Wengen 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.
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.
