Untitled (windmill)

Boris Riedel

Very little is known about the Austrian-born, American-based artist and graphic designer Boris Riedel, among whose seminal works is the first cover of The Chicagoan magazine (June 14, 1926). Despite a prolific career that included children's book illustration and Hollywood poster design, his life has not been documented or made as readily available as his contemporaries'. Active from the 1910s through the 1950s, as of this writing his birth and death dates have not been found.

His style ran the gamut from simple genre works relating to his time in Austria or the American Southwest, to vibrant, vorticist Art Deco designs illuminating the energy of city life. Here, in a winter scene that appears to take place in a European village, a woman trudges along a snowy path while a man appears to work on the windmill's base.