Kathreiner Weine Vintage Wine Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein, 1913

Ludwig Hohlwein’s Kathreiner Weine, created in 1913, gives wine advertising the ceremonious air of a royal portrait. A crowned gentleman occupies the centre of the tall composition, dressed in a brilliant red robe edged with pale fur and holding a wine glass delicately before him. Set against an almost black ground, the figure is at once stately and immediately legible: red, gold and cream emerge with theatrical clarity from the darkness, while the surrounding emptiness concentrates attention on the product’s regal advocate.

Hohlwein was one of the defining figures of early twentieth-century German commercial art. His posters helped establish a graphic language based on simplified shapes, forceful silhouettes and carefully controlled contrasts rather than lengthy written persuasion. Kathreiner Weine belongs to a period in which posters were becoming increasingly sophisticated instruments of brand identity. Here, ideas of distinction and quality are communicated through costume, bearing and colour before the viewer has read a single word.

A closer look

The poster’s structure is notably direct. Across the upper edge, the name “KATHREINER WEINE” appears in bold sans-serif lettering, forming a firm horizontal header above the crowned figure. Below, the body broadens through the heavy robe, creating a roughly triangular mass that anchors the design. The symmetrical arrangement lends the gentleman an emblematic presence, closer to a heraldic device than to a figure observed in an everyday setting.

Hohlwein balances broad expanses of flat colour with a select number of finely described details. The saturated scarlet robe carries darker shading along its folds, while the fur trim is articulated through short, irregular marks. Gold beads circle the figure’s neck, and the crown is picked out with jewel-like accents and darker facets that give it surprising solidity. The wine glass provides a much smaller focal point: its pale highlights and slender outline stand apart from the dense reds and blacks around it, ensuring that the advertised drink remains central to the visual argument.

At the foot of the composition, a line of German text identifies the wines as coming from the cellars of Franz Kathreiner’s successor company in Munich: “AUS DEN KELLEREIEN DER FIRMA FRANZ KATHREINERS NACHFOLGER G.M.B.H. MÜNCHEN”. Its relatively modest scale establishes a clear hierarchy. Brand name and figure deliver the immediate message; corporate information follows only after the poster has secured attention. A narrow cream margin neatly contains the otherwise dark, concentrated design.

Context and significance

Hohlwein’s achievement lay partly in making commercial images function at a glance without reducing them to mere diagrams. Although the forms in Kathreiner Weine are streamlined, the small distinctions between fur, fabric, metal and glass preserve a sense of material richness. His limited palette also serves more than a decorative purpose: the deep background isolates the silhouette, the robe supplies the dominant colour block, and gold details establish an association with ceremony and prestige.

The crowned drinker is an especially effective advertising invention because he requires no elaborate narrative. His costume presents the wine as something fit for a ruler, while his composed pose suggests assured judgement rather than exuberant consumption. More than a century after its creation, the poster remains a lucid example of Hohlwein’s ability to turn a simple commercial proposition into an image of memorable graphic authority.

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The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this art print.

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