Full size sold for $ 18,400 US Poster Auctions International, N.Y. May 2010
“An exquisitely-dressed woman mixes her cocktail, immersed in the nightlife of Walter Schnakenberg’s poster promoting the decadent Odeon Casino in Munich. If the Odeon Casino and the Bonbonnière & Eremitage were anything like their posters promised, we can barely imagine the debauchery Evenings there would contain.” (Transcendent Luxury by Thomas Negovan)
“Schnackenberg pulls out all the stops here with unbridled dancing in the shadowy indigo-black background, an allusion to the boozier temptations of the club and a bare-shouldered creature of the night taking it all in while she swizzles away. And while she’s somewhat vampiric, it’s hard to look away from this demimondaine once you’ve taken note of her, a sensual creature that would almost make you gasp in dismay if seen in the harsh light of day, but when viewed in her proper dusk-to-dawn Odeon milieu becomes eerily magnetic.” (Rennert)
Schnackenberg in his Studio with model
Walter Schnackenberg was one of Germany’s most famous poster designers between the world wars. Together with Ludwig Hohlwein, Hans Rudi Erdt, Josef Fenneker and Lucian Bernhard he ranks among the top. His output was very limited but of a constant high quality, which earned him the name Germany’s Toulouse-Lautrec. "Schnackenberg studied with Franz von Stück at the academy in Munich, and through his travels was exposed to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec in Paris. The two artists shared a passion for depicting nightlife, cabarets and performers, yet Schnackenberg's theatrical vision was more attuned to the prevailing German mood than that of fin-de-siècle Paris. His posters are an incarnation of the extravagance, decadence and morbidity at the center of Weimar-era indulgences. Similar to Toulouse-Lautrec, Schnackenberg left behind a visual gallery of the demimonde of Munich's nightlife, filled with peculiar performers and dancers. Schnackenberg also worked extensively on theatrical and costume design. (Swann) "Born in Bad Lauterburg in 1880, Walter Schnackenberg found his vocation as a draughtsman and painter while still very young. At 19 he went to Munich, where he at first attended Heinrich Knirr's painting school before going on to study at the Franz von Stuck Academy. Drawing was Schnackenberg's strong point. His lively imagination made him particularly good at caricature. He drew for the celebrated magazines "Jugend" and "Simplizissimus". His themes were theatre and the comic muse." (50watts.com) Schnackenberg: Kostüme / Plakate und Dekorationen. Munich: Musarion, 1922 Second Edition. Introductory text by Oskar Bie. An excellent compendium of Schnackenberg's posters, costumes and stage designs. The plates in this book are more in keeping with the Maitres de l'Affiche images, in that they were pulled by Oskar Consee (Schnackenberg's exclusive printer), and were surely done under the artist's supervision, with rich inking on high-quality paper.
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