Italian, 1868–1944
Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1868–1944) was an Italian painter, illustrator and poster designer who, with Adolfo Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni, Leonetto Cappiello and Marcello Dudovich, is considered one of the fathers of the modern Italian poster. Born in Trieste, the son of a merchant of Dalmatian origin, he learned lithography as a fourteen-year-old apprentice in a printing house in Udine, where Giulio Ricordi noticed him and invited him to Milan.
After working for the photographic company Tensi, he joined Ricordi in 1892 as technical director, at first transferring the designs of Hohenstein and Mataloni onto the lithographic stone before creating his own posters. His posters advertised many of the operas of the day, from Mascagni's Iris (1898) to Puccini's Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926); he also worked on the large campaign for the Mele department stores in Naples, and in 1906 won the competition for the poster of the Milan International Exhibition celebrating the Simplon Tunnel. In 1914 he designed four posters for the film Cabiria, and he created the eagle trademark still used by Fernet-Branca.
Between 1907 and 1910 he travelled twice to Buenos Aires for Ricordi. After his collaboration with the firm ended in 1938 he concentrated on landscape and portrait painting. He died at his home in Ponte Lambro on 19 October 1944.
5 artworks
