Marcello Dudovich

Marcello Dudovich was born in 1878 in Trieste to an Italian mother and a Dalmatian father. His father, Antonio Dudovich, born in Traù (Trogir), Dalmatia, was a fervent Italian irredentist who fought alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Third Italian War of Independence, and worked for the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.[1][2] Marcello attended the prestigious Royal School in Trieste. Upon completing his studies, he began working with his father as a lithographer and illustrator for advertising art, prints and posters.

He relocated from Trieste to Milan in 1897 after attending a professional art school. He was recruited as a lithographer by Ricordi, a music publisher, thanks to his father's friendship with the illustrator and cartoonist Leopoldo Metlicovitz, and was given charge over advertisement design.

In 1899 he transferred to Bologna, working here for the publisher Edmondo Chappuis, designing billboards, book covers and illustrations for publications such as Italia Ride in 1900 e Fantasio in 1902. Here he met Elisa Bucchi, his future wife.

In 1900 he won the "Gold Medal" at the Paris World Fair.

In 1905 Dudovich returned to Milan to rejoin Ricordi. Here, in the next few years, he designed some of his well-known posters, including a series of famous advertising posters for the department store (E & A Mele) in Naples and "Borsalino". In the 1920s he made several posters for the Milan department store, La Rinascente, and in 1922 he was appointed artistic director of "Igap".

In 1930 he designed a prominent poster for Pirelli. After the Second World War he moved away from the world of commercial art, concentrating instead on his painting.

Marcello Dudovich died in Milan from a cerebral hemorrhage on 31 March 1962.

Dudovich is celebrated as one of Italy's greatest poster artists. He was inspired by Edward Penfield, by his friend and teacher Adolfo Hohenstein and by Alphonse Mucha. But ultimately his reputation comes from his having developed his own very distinctive and richly coloured style.

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  Poster for the Umberto Giordano opera "Fedora," 1899.
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  Poster for the premiere of "Siberia" the opera by Giordano, 1903.
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  Illustration for the cover of "Ars et Labor" (Art and Labor) magazine, 1907.
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  WWI recruitment poster, seeking to inspire enlistment by touting freedom and civilization (la libertá e la civiltá), 1917.

• Marcello Dudovich