About 150 years ago, foreign guests started coming to Switzerland to recover from lung illnesses in the fresh, dry mountain air and bright sunshine. In the early 20th century it was fashionable for members of English high society to spend their winter holidays in the famous mountain resorts of Switzerland.

These lithographs from the 1920s and 1930s created by the most renowed poster artists of the time for famous travel resorts such as Klosters, Engelberg, Wengen and Zurich are amont the most rare and impressive Swiss Art Deco posters.

Emil Cardinaux (1877-1936) was a pioneer of Swiss poster art. He studied in Munich under Franz von Stuck, one of the founders of the Munich Secession. There, he also learned lithography and understood perfectly how to use the technique to produce effective, artistic advertising images. Cardinaux designed more than 130 posters for fashion, consumer goods, cultural events, charities, hotels, transport companies, travel destinations and, later on, political causes. His travel posters are especially striking, as they reflect the artist’s love for the Swiss mountains and his talent for capturing the beauty of his natural surroundings. Today, Cardinaux’s works are highly sought after on the vintage poster market. Many were lithographed on stone at the Wolfensberger printing company in Zurich.