As one of the top lots in the category of advertising posters during Bolaffi’s auction on 26 September 2013, the 1899 Bitter Campari poster bears the signature of Adolfo Hohenstein, one of the most noteworthy and sought-after Italian affichistes. Born to German family in 1854 in Saint Petersburg, Hohenstein studied art in Vienna and subsequently in Milan, where he picked up the rising Art Nouveau style. The mark of this artistic training can be seen in his work as a set designer at La Scala and other city theaters. He came into contact with Giulio Ricordi, a great music publisher; at Ricordi’s behest, Hohenstein created the posters for Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, Tosca and Madame Butterfly. In the same period he collaborated with the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera and with numerous companies in Italy and abroad. Campari’s choice of Hohenstein as poster designer was image-motivated, and part of a broader marketing strategy that the company developed in the late 1800s, hiring not only Hohenstein but also Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Adolfo Magrini and Marcello Dudovich to promote their products. Later along in the 1900s, Campari would entrust its advertising to highly skilled graphic artists such as Leonetto Cappiello, Fortunato Depero, Marcello Nizzoli, Nicola Diulgheroff; but Hohenstein was the starting point in Campari’s attentive quest for a specific graphic style matching the modern image that the company aimed to attribute to itself and its products. And Hohenstein hit the mark, placing the same graphic emphasis on the product (bitters) as on the manufacturer (Campari). He also added a seemingly secondary detail which was to become a recurrent element in the company’s communications: the bottle of soda water, which clearly shows how the aperitif is served. Painter, commercial artist, illustrator, set designer and costume designer, Hohenstein returned to Germany in the early 1900s after many years in Italy. There he completed many more posters for shows and art exhibits before his death in Bonn in 1928.

By Alberto Ponti