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Full size sold for $ 19,550 US Swann Auctions Galleries, N.Y. Dec 2003.

"Hohenstein also accepted commissions for more enduring operas, such as Puccini's eternal masterpiece, Tosca, which is based on the play written by Victorien Sardou for Sarah Bernhardt, who originally performed it in 1897. Mucha designed a poster (La Tosca, 1897) for that production. Hohenstein's design is better than Mucha's, whose poster is not especially inspired, with the majority of his efforts put into the rendering of Bernhardt's sumptuous costume, and the intricate, byzantine, background border. Hohenstein, by comparison, puts us in the center of the drama, in the second act, when Tosca kills Scarpia, the corrupt police chief. He has arrested her lover and is trying to extract sexual favors to secure his release. The dramatic view is from above, exagerating the shadow of her gown with a brilliant use of shadows and light. The colors, from pale yellow to brown, with red in the center of the scene, add to the striking, tragic intensity of the image. One of the best opera posters, and best Art Nouveau posters ever produced " (Swann)

Adolfo Hohenstein spent his whole career with Ricordi the great Italian publishing company. He began working there in 1889 designing sheet music covers for operas. Shortly thereafter he became art director of the firm and began to design posters. He had a large influence on the young artists who joined the studio (Metlicovitz, Dudovitch, Capiello, Laskoff, and others) many of whom went on to great renown. After work in the early 1890s, which clearly shows the influence of Jules Cheret, Hohenstein's work, incorporating elements of Mucha's art, began to find its own flamboyant style" (Swann)

This is a selection from the very rare commemorative portfolio published by the renowned Italian printer Ricordi in 1914. The portfolio consisted of 70 lithographic plates (smaller versions) of Ricordi's greatest posters printed between 1895 and 1914. Many of the images in the series are so rare that they can be found today in no other format. In the 1870s, Ricordi opened an in-house lithography shop to promote its operas and sheet music business. Ricordi quickly became the leading lithographer in Italy and by 1895 was creating posters for other clients such as Campari, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, and the Mele Department store of Naples. Under the tutelage of Adolfo Hohenstein, a brilliant stable of artists emerged at Ricordi. Artists including Cappiello, Caldanzano, Cavaleri, Dudovich, Laskoff, Metlicovitz and Mataloni brought Art Nouveau, known as Stile Liberty in Italy, to a world class level. Much like the famous Maitre de L'Affiche series created by Cheret in Paris, this portfolio celebrated the rise of the poster - which in Italy was almost single-handedly accomplished by Ricordi. (www.internationalposter.com)