Winter in Davos Poster – Mangold Burkhard – 1914
Given how popular skiing is today you could be forgiven for thinking that alpine skiing has always been the winter sport of choice. However, this isn’t actually the case. Several Winter Sports were popularised long before downhill skiing as a pastime, hobby or sport was even considered.
Up until 1865, Davos was best known as a summer health resort. At this time, the only form of sport practiced in the area was sledging., which was purely a leisure time activity during the winter months. Over the next twenty years, the resort’s reputation as a winter destination grew, and by 1890, Davos was able to count bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, cross-country skiing, speed skating and figure skating among the winter sports on offer.
As this fabulous 1914 Winter in Davos poster highlights, guests at Davos enjoyed ice skating from very early on. It dates from a time when ice skating was actually a bigger pull to tourists than skiing. The poster was created by the Swiss painter, illustrator and poster artist Mangold Burkhard. The Ice Skating at Davos Wall Art offers a delightful scene of couples resplendent in their winter fashions, enjoying skating together on the ice rink at Davos.
Ice Skating at Davos
Davos Lake has been used for ice skating since the mid-1860s. The first man-made ice rink in Davos was created in the Kurhaus garden (today’s Arkadenplatz) in 1869. It was so popular that in just two years it could no longer meet the growing demand. A 500m², the purpose-built ice rink was constructed to replace it but even that was soon inadequate. In the 1880/81 winter season a 6,500m² skating rink was opened at the location of today’s natural ice rink and in the winter of 1892-93 yet another rink at 16,000m², was opened to ice skaters.
Ice skating remained the most popular winter sport until the late 1920s. Alpine or Downhill skiing was still in its infancy when the inaugural Winter Olympics were held in 1924 and didn’t form part of the event. The Games included 16 events in 5 sports; Bobsleigh, Curling, Ice Hockey, Figure Skating and Speed Skating. The final event was Nordic Skiing which was broken down into four events consisting Military Patrol, Cross-country skiing, Nordic Combination and Ski Jumping.
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.
