Biography

Son of a merchant of Dalmatian origins (the family name was originally Metlicovich), he began working in the family business at a very young age and at fourteen years old he entered as an apprentice in a printing house in Udine, where he learned the technique of lithography. Here he is noticed by Giulio Ricordi, owner of the homonymous musical house and of the Officine Grafiche, who invites him to move to Milan to complete his training.^[1]

From 1888 to 1892 he collaborated with Tensi, a photographic products company, and in 1892 he joined Ricordi as technical director.^[2] At first he practiced transposing the works of other famous poster artists such as Hohenstein and Mataloni onto lithographic stone, then his pictorial talent was increasingly appreciated and he began creating posters and illustrations for Ricordi's music editions. Many of the works of the most famous composers of the time are advertised on posters signed by Metlicovitz: from those of Giacomo Puccini such as Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926) to Iris by Pietro Mascagni (1898), to Conchita by Riccardo Zandonai (1911).^[3] At the end of the nineteenth century, the Grandi Magazzini Mele of Naples entrusted Officine Ricordi with their own advertising campaign for their clothing, one of the first on a large scale, and the artifices of success were the posters created by Metlicovitz together with Aleardo Terzi, Dudovich, Cappiello and others.^[4]

In 1906, on the occasion of the great Universal Exhibition in Milan, Metlicovitz won the competition for the poster that symbolized the fair, dedicated to the Simplon Tunnel, making a name for himself as a poster designer. There are dozens of magazine covers, scores and opera librettos published by Ricordi, which bear his signature including the magazines Music and Musicians (1902-1905) and Ars et Labor (1906-1912), his work as an illustrator also appears on La Lettura (1906-1907, 1909) monthly in Corriere della Sera.^[5]

Especially from the beginning of the twentieth century, the Officine Grafiche Ricordi began to sell various products that were the fruit of a merchandising ante-litteram, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Giulio Ricordi, and many of them bore the signature of Leopoldo Metlicovitz, such as the Almanacco Verdiano of 1902 or the series of illustrated postcards on musical themes, such as those for the operas La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly or Germania by Alberto Franchetti.^[6]

Between 1907 and 1910 Metlicovitz, on behalf of Ricordi, went twice to Buenos Aires; in the meantime he had married Elvira Lazzaroni, by whom he had two children: Roberto (1908-?) and Leopolda (1912–2008). In 1914 Metlicovitz is also one of the designers, together with Armando Vassallo, Luigi Caldanzano and Adolfo De Carolis, involved in the launch of the film Cabiria, a colossal of silent screenplay by Gabriele D'Annunzio, for which he will create four posters. He also designed the trademark that is still used today by Fratelli Branca Distillerie, the producers of Fernet Branca, depicting an eagle with spread wings holding a bottle of the liqueur above a globe.^[7]

After ending his collaboration with Casa Ricordi in 1938, he concentrated more and more on painting, preferring landscapes and portraits and participating in the first editions of the Cremona Prize (1939-1940). On 19 October 1944 he died in his house in Ponte Lambro, where he had moved permanently in 1915.^[1]