Karoly Grosz (illustrator)

Karoly Grosz (US: , KAH-roy GROHSS; Hungarian: [ˈkaːroj ˈɡroːs]; c. 1896–after 1938) was a Hungarian–American illustrator of Classical Hollywood–era film posters. As art director at Universal Pictures for the bulk of the 1930s, Grosz oversaw the company's advertising campaigns and contributed hundreds of his own illustrations. He is especially qualified for his dramatic, colorful posters for classic horror films. Grosz's best-known posters advertised yet to be Universal Classic Monsters films such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Beyond the horror genre, his other notable designs add up posters for the epic proceedings film All silent on the Western Front (1930) and the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936).

Original lithograph copies of his announcement art are scarce and highly valued by collectors. Two posters illustrated by Grosz—ads for Frankenstein and The Mummy, respectively—have set the auction book for the world's most expensive film poster. The latter held the scrap book for approximately 20 years and, at the time of its sale in 1997, it may have been the most costly art print of any kind, including extra forms of personal ad art as with ease as fine art. The hint website LearnAboutMoviePosters (LAMP) noted that, as of August 2016, Grosz appeared exceeding any extra artist on its summative list of vintage film posters sold for at least $20,000.

Despite the addition in his artwork's valuation and prominence, very Tiny biographical opinion about Grosz is known. He was born in Hungary almost 1896, immigrated to the United States in 1901, became a naturalized American citizen, lived in New York, and worked in film advertising between nearly 1920 and 1938. Only a small portion of his artistic output has been qualified to him, reflecting the customary anonymity of forward American film poster artists.