WM Arte answers
Who was Marcello Dudovich, and what is the "Dudovich woman"?
Marcello Dudovich (Trieste 1878 – Milan 1962) was one of the great Italian poster artists. He joined Ricordi in 1897 and made posters for Strega (1906), Borsalino (1911) and La Rinascente (1921–1956). Treccani describes his elegant women as drawn "with few lines": the fashionable figure as the product's promise.
In 1911 he also became the society-page illustrator of the Munich magazine Simplicissimus, and from 1922 to 1936 he was art director of IGAP. Treccani traces his style to Liberty and the Vienna Secession crossed with Japanese prints: flat forms, broad colour, strong outlines.
His record at auction: Cablé Confort Michelin sold for €100,000 including premium at Aste Bolaffi, Turin, on 16–17 April 2024, which AGI reported as the most expensive Dudovich poster ever sold at auction. Sources disagree on how many posters he made for La Rinascente: Treccani says more than fifty, other accounts more than a hundred.
The line he drew, an elegant woman captured in a few confident strokes, still runs through fashion illustration today, including the watercolours of Lihuà.