Ex Libris Victor Schwanneke, c. 1913

Emil Pirchan (1884–1957) studied architecture at the class of Otto Wagner (1841–1918) from 1903 to 1906 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He subsequently worked primarily as a commercial artist, and from 1919 was among the leading stage designers in the German-speaking world. By his own admission, the universally talented artist created more than 1,500 works of commercial art when he lived in Munich between 1908 and 1918, including some 50 posters, numerous logos, bookplates, poster stamps, designs for packaging, technical illustrations for user manuals, calendar sheets, invitation cards, book illustrations, templates for flyleaves, coloring books for children as well as playing cards. In 1913, he founded a private art school for advertising art in Munich. Reflecting the name and profession of the actor Viktor Schwanneke (1880–1931) [“Schwan” meaning swan in German], Pirchan’s design for his bookplate features a stylized swan and a theater mask on the book cover. When Schwanneke was appointed interim director of the Bavarian State Theaters in 1918, he assigned Emil Pirchan the role of head of set design and costumes, marking the beginning of Pirchan’s second career path.

IR, 2023