Underworld
Josef von Sternberg
Austrian, born Austria–Hungary (Vienna). 1894–1969
Batiste Madalena
American, 1902–1988
c. 1927
A tempera-on-poster-board film poster from around 1927, designed to advertise the movie Underworld by condensing its drama into a single theatrical portrait meant to seize the attention of passersby.
Almost entirely in cool blues, the composition confronts you with a close, trembling, wide‑eyed male face cupped by his hands, hair and shadow rendered in thick, painterly strokes so the image reads like a blown‑up cinematic close‑up at street scale.
This poster exemplifies how 1920s commercial artists translated the new language of cinema into bold, painterly graphics—using simplified palettes and dramatic portraiture to define early movie‑poster design and the iconography of crime melodrama.
Medium
Tempera on poster board
Dimensions
Overall: 42 1/2 x 24 1/4" (108 x 61.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Courtesy of Judith and Steven Katten
Accession
F1928
Palette
Exhibitions
