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Emil Cardinaux Art

Swiss, 1877-1936

Swiss painter and illustrator Emil Cardinaux was a pioneer of poster design, credited with creating the world’s first modern tourism poster in 1908. Characterized by his use of muted colors and simple yet powerful imagery, Cardinaux’s designs of more than 130 posters captured the world’s attention during the early 20th century and remain highly coveted by art dealers and collectors today. 

Born in 1877, Cardinaux was encouraged by his parents to study law at the University of Bern before he turned his attention toward art, taking drawing lessons at the Berner Kunstschule under artist Paul Volmar. In 1898, he moved to Munich to continue his art studies, attending the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München as a student of painter Franz von Stuck.

Following his studies, Cardinaux traveled extensively throughout France, Italy and the Netherlands before returning to Bern in 1903 to focus on landscape painting.

In 1908, Cardinaux was commissioned by the Swiss government to design a promotional poster depicting the country’s famous Matterhorn mountain and Zermatt ski area. Inspired by the stark, symbolist paintings and prints of Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler, Cardinaux captured the mountain peak in its simplest form, overlooking a shadow-soaked valley.

Cardinaux’s streamlined Jugendstil style was a signature of many of his lithographic posters and landscape prints. He also designed materials for companies, including Tobler Schokolade (makers of Toblerone), the Bern truck factory and Bally shoes.

Throughout his career, Cardinaux created an extensive array of works, such as book illustrations, mono-card designs, printed material, landscape paintings and caricature drawings. However, his iconic posters are most sought after by Art Nouveau and Art Deco collectors and aficionados.

On 1stDibs, find a range of Emil Cardinaux prints and paintings.

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Artist: Emil Cardinaux
1928 Original Jungfrau Railway poster, created by Émile Cardinaux
By Emile Cardinaux
Located in PARIS, FR
The original Jungfrau Railway poster, created by Swiss artist Émile Cardinaux in 1928, is a masterpiece of Swiss design. Cardinaux, who was born in Swi...
Category

1920s Emil Cardinaux Art

Materials

Lithograph, Paper, Linen

Emil Cardinaux (1877-1936) - Fine Framed 1931 Oil, The Train Tracks
By Emile Cardinaux
Located in Corsham, GB
Sulis Fine Art is delighted to present a very fine landscape study by the Swiss painter Emil Cardinaux. Known for his wonderful tourist posters and graphic designs, this unusual stud...
Category

20th Century Emil Cardinaux Art

Materials

Oil

Original Vintage Poster Teppichhaus Schuster St Gallen & Zurich Orient Carpets
By Emile Cardinaux
Located in London, GB
Original vintage carpet advertising poster for Teppichhaus Schuster & Co St Gallen & Zurich Switzerland featuring an Oriental style design depicting a lady playing music on a stringed instrument and a man reclining...
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1920s Emil Cardinaux Art

Materials

Paper

Jungfubahn
By Emile Cardinaux
Located in New York, NY
Cardinaux, Emil. Jungfubahn 1928. Color lithograph. 50 1/4 x 35 1/2" [large format]. Cardinaux’s posters were very influential on the way Switzerland saw and represented itself in...
Category

1920s Art Deco Emil Cardinaux Art

Materials

Lithograph

Chemin De Fer Rhetique
By Emile Cardinaux
Located in New York, NY
Chemin De Fer Rhetique, Grisons, Suisse. Chateau De Tarasp. 1913. Color lithograph Cardinaux created an extensive work of different media, he illu...
Category

1910s Art Deco Emil Cardinaux Art

Materials

Lithograph

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Early oil depicting the Great Fire of London
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The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...
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Previously Available Items
Circa 1925 Original poster made by Emil Cardinaux - Zermatt Switzerland
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Original poster made by Emil Cardinaux 🇨🇭 (1877-1936), one of the most important founders of the poster in Switzerland. In 1908, he was commissioned by the Swiss government to cre...
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Rare original antique winter sport travel poster for St. Moritz in Switzerland, one of the early and most sought after winter sports posters, featuring ...
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Emil Cardinaux art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Emil Cardinaux art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Emil Cardinaux in lithograph, paper, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Art Deco style. Not every interior allows for large Emil Cardinaux art, so small editions measuring 26 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Charles Turzak, Leonardo Brunelleschi, and Georges Lepape. Emil Cardinaux art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $6,500 and tops out at $11,125, while the average work can sell for $6,813.

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