And where is the “Little Red One”? A Railway Poster by Augusto Giacometti

The tombstone of Val Bregaglia native and artist Augusto Giacometti (1877-1947) is inscribed with the words «Qui riposa il maestro dei colori». Augusto Giacometti was indeed a “master of colour”: in some of his works, it is the colours that seem to give shape to his work, while in others the colours seem to unfold freely but always harmoniously.

A figurative character and clear-cut coloured surfaces, however, are qualities that can be ascribed to a poster created by Giacometti in 1918. It features a red, open parasol hovering over the Upper Engadin’s mountain landscape. The poster was deployed several times: to advertise Graubünden with slogans such as "Viva la Grischa" [long live Graubünden] or “Sonnenland” [land of sunshine] and to advertise the can-ton in combination with the Rhaetian Railway. The abbreviation "Rh.B." can be seen at the top left of the poster in this version. However, the Rhaetian Railway, affectionately known in Graubünden as the "little red one", was not featured in any of the posters.

Advertising trains without showing actual trains? Augusto Giacometti was not alone with this idea. Other artists also used designs that did not depict trains but the destination of the journey. And from today's perspective, their inclusion in the posters would probably have a confusing effect: the “little red ones” were in fact green around 1918. The colour of the carriages was only changed to red decades later.