Poster for the Emperor’s jubilee procession, 1908

This poster was designed by the painter, graphic artist and designer Bertold Löffler (1874–1960) for the jubilee procession marking the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph’s reign in 1908. Löffler, who had succeeded Carl Otto Czeschka (1878–1960) in 1907 as head of the painting class at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, chose a slender vertical format for the poster and placed a kneeling knight into the depiction. This medieval-looking figure is wearing a chain armor under a white garment and is holding a banner featuring a red lion with both hands. Underneath it, the artist placed white lettering reading “Emperor’s jubilee procession”, while the area, highlighted in red, right on the bottom provides terse information about the place and date. For the motif of the knight, Löffler seems to have derived inspiration from Georges Minne’s (1866–1941) sculpture Kneeling Youth as well as from works by Richard Luksch (1872–1936) and Koloman Moser (1868–1918).

MR, 2021