| Creator | Walther Koch |
| Printing year | 1910 |
| Sheet size (cm) | 98.5×69.5 |
| Printing technique | Lithograph |
| Printer | Graph. Anstalt J. E. Wolfensberger |
| Condition | B |
| Asking price | 0 CHF |
| Categories | Grisons, Switzerland, Winter Posters |
Walther Koch was the first foreigner working in Switzerland to leave a lasting mark with his posters – and what a mark it was: his posters, created especially for Davos, are not only among the best that appeared in local streets, on ocean liners, and in European transport hubs from 1906 onwards. Above all, these were the first modern Swiss Travel Posters at all – free of historicism, folklore, and the desire to fit as much information as possible onto a single sheet. Instead: generous abstraction of an already streamlined motif composition, large areas of color, clear outlines, and strong contrasts.
The fact that this motif, which promoted Davos as a winter health resort from 1910 onwards, also exudes such a powerful sense of tranquility makes it an outstanding work of Swiss poster art – similar to Emil Cardinaux’ Zermatt poster with its mauve-colored sky.
Koch (1875 – 1915), the son of a painter, first attended the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg before studying sculpture at the Berlin Academy of Arts for three years from 1893 – and realizing that applied art was closer to his heart. He first came to Davos in 1898 for health reasons and stayed in 1902. Already familiar in Germany with the aspirations of the younger generation to combine life and art (the German Werkbund was founded in 1907, the Swiss Werkbund not before 1913), he soon succeeded in being commissioned by the Davos Tourist Office and the fledgling Ski Association to design posters.
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