Stenberg Brothers' Poster

Georgy Stenberg (1900-1933)
Vladimir Stenberg (1899-1992)
Poster for the release of the Mary Pickford
film Little Lord Fauntleroy
[Russian title: The Pretender] ca. 1927
Lithograph and offset lithography
Prints & Photographs Division
Purchase, GENPAC, 1999 (157.5)

The Stenberg Brothers, Georgy and Vladimir, are considered to be masters of the 1920s and 1930s Russian film poster. They embraced constructivism, which became the avant-garde of Soviet art in the turbulent era after 1917. The Stenbergs simulated the "magic realism" of photography and only on rare occasions did they use actual photographs in their work. Shown here is Mary Pickford (1893-1979), American matinee idol, in the Russian release of Little Lord Fauntleroy, here called "The Pretender."