Vintage Polish Poster | Krol Lavra | King Lavra

Krol Lavra (“Kral Lavra” in Czech) is a 1950 animated short film by director and animator Karel Zeman. The story is based on on an Irish folk tale, “The King with the Donkey´s Ears”, an 1854 poem by Karel Havlicek Borovsky, and an 1964 play by Milan Uhde. In the Czech animated film version here, disguised as a children´s tale, it is believed by some to satire and allude to the abuse of power by an ignorant leader under the Soviet regime. Zeman was a successor to Georges Melies and influenced later animators and directors such as Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and Wes Anderson. The poster artist Marian Walentynowicz (1896-1967), born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was a Polish graphic artist, architect, teacher, and writer. He is probably best known for his collaboration as illustrator with Kornel Makuszynski for their creation of Koziolek Matolek, a popular classic children’s series about a billy goat. Walentynowicz studied architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic. During the 1930s he taught at the Women’s Architectural Academy in Warsaw, and was an illustrator for various Warsaw publications. During the Second world war, he was the war correspondent attached to General Stanisław Maczek’s Polish 1st Armored Division. His war memoirs were published as Wojna Bez Patosu (“War without Pathos”) in 1969.