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Komödianten — Dryden sheet

A travelling player painted at nearly life size, in the years when the German poster learned to sell a face.

What

Ernst Deutsch-Dryden's 1913 poster for Urban Gad's Komödianten, printed by Hollerbaum & Schmidt of Berlin N 65 — the lithographic house that defined the look of German advertising before the First World War.

Why

Hollerbaum & Schmidt printed for Lucian Bernhard, Hans Rudi Erdt and Julius Klinger, and their presses effectively manufactured the Berlin Sachplakat. This sheet applies that commercial vocabulary to a film, at a moment when cinema was still arguing for its own respectability.

Notice

The flat unmodelled ground behind the figure — the Sachplakat principle of object against void, imported wholesale from poster advertising into film publicity.

“Berlin's poster trade, lending the young cinema its authority.”

Format

The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.

Size

$29.00

Provenance

Film
Komödianten (1913), dir. Urban Gad
Country / studio
Germany
Designer
Ernst Deutsch-Dryden
Printer / stone
Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin
Format
One-sheet (27 × 41 in.)
Poster published
German lithographed film poster, Berlin printing, 1913
Source
Wikimedia Commons
View the public source record ↗

Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (poster published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year, never the film’s. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18. Star-portrait piece: sold as the artifact, the film named, the star incidental.

The Double Bill

Two one-sheets, hung as a pair — a double feature for your wall, at a pairing price of $270.00 for the two. Build one from any two one-sheets in the gallery.

Pair it in the gallery →

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