Marcello Dudovich was born in 1878 in
Trieste to an Italian mother and a Dalmatian father. His father, Antonio Dudovich, born in
Traù (Trogir),
Dalmatia, was a fervent Italian irredentist who fought alongside
Giuseppe Garibaldi during the
Third Italian War of Independence, and worked for the insurance company
Assicurazioni Generali. Marcello attended the prestigious Royal School in Trieste. Upon completing his studies, he began working with his father as a lithographer and illustrator for advertising art, prints and posters. He relocated from Trieste to
Milan in 1897 after attending a professional art school. He was recruited as a lithographer by Ricordi, a music publisher, thanks to his father's friendship with the illustrator and cartoonist
Leopoldo Metlicovitz, and was given charge of advertisement design. In 1899, he transferred to
Bologna, working here for the publisher Edmondo Chappuis, designing billboards, book covers and illustrations for publications such as
Italia Ride in 1900 and
Fantasio in 1902. Here he met Elisa Bucchi, his future wife. In 1900, he won the "Gold Medal" at the
Paris World Fair. In 1905, Dudovich returned to Milan to rejoin Ricordi. Here, in the next few years, he designed some of his well-known posters, including a series of famous advertising posters for the department store
Grandi Magazzini Mele in Naples and "
Borsalino". In the 1920s, he made several posters for the Milan department store,
La Rinascente, and in 1922, he was appointed artistic director of "Igap". In 1930, he designed a prominent poster for
Pirelli. After the
Second World War he moved away from the world of commercial art, concentrating instead on his painting. Marcello Dudovich died in Milan from a
cerebral haemorrhage on 31 March 1962. Dudovich is celebrated as one of Italy's greatest poster artists. He was inspired by
Edward Penfield, by his friend and teacher
Adolfo Hohenstein and by
Alphonse Mucha. == Selected lithographs ==