Ernst Deutsch Dryden (1883 - 1938)

Vienna born Ernst Deutsch received his artistic education in his home town at the renowned School of Applied Arts. But like other artists, he was attracted to Berlin, then one of the great centres of modern poster design. As of 1911 Deutsch was active in Berlin, and very successfully so. There he was inspired by the extremely matter-of-fact poster style of a Lucian Bernhard (see Neue Werbung, 1985/5), and an innovative “factual elegance” distinguished his work. However, over time he distanced himself more and more from the austerity of the plain, business-like poster style. He turned towards the more substantial: A new wealth and depth of drawing characterised his work. First signs of this development can already be seen in his designs for “Richard’s”, originally published in 1912 as advertisements, later also as a poster series. A certain dandified, sophisticated extravagance, an overly pronounced elegance, and, quite oft