1910s Art

France, early 20th century Head of a faun bears a monogram "P H" on the lower right Pencil on paper 24.5 x 13 cm In a period frame (in good condition except a small loss on the upper...

Walter Schnackenberg’s style changed several times during his long and successful career. Having studied in Munich, the artist traveled often to Paris where he fell under the spell of the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s colorful and sensuous posters depicting theatrical and decadent subjects. Schnackenberg became a regular contributor of similar compositions to the German magazines Jugend and Simplicissimus before devoting himself to the design of stage scenery and costumes. In the artist’s theatrical work, his mastery of form, ornamentation, and Orientalism became increasingly evident. He excelled at combining fluid Art Nouveau outlines, with spiky Expressionist passages, and the postures and patterns of the mysterious East. In his later years, Schnackenberg explored the unconscious, using surreal subject matter and paler colors that plainly portrayed dreams and visions, some imbued with political connotations. His drawings, illustrations, folio prints, and posters are highly sought today for their exceedingly imaginative qualities, enchanting subject matter, and arresting use of color. SCHNACKENBERG: KOSTUME, PLAKATE UND DEKORATIONEN, a cardboard bound art book consisting of 43 prints of work by Walter Schnackenberg, 30 of which are color lithographs that are signed and some are titled and dated in the plate, as well as black and white prints and photographs with accompanying text by Oskar Bie; lithographs printed at Kunstanstalt Oskar Consee in Munich, other images printed by Gesellschaft Pick & Co. in Munich, the text and cover with color images by Schnackenberg front and verso printed by R. Oldenbourg in Munich; published by Musarion Verlag, Munich, 1920. The majority of Walter Schnackenberg’s artistic output was destroyed by bomb attacks in Munich in 1944. The highly publicized 2013 auction in New York of the recovered pre-war poster collection once belonging to German poster aficionado, Hans Sachs has reintroduced the world to Walter Schnackenberg’s graphic genius and priceless ephemeral art from a lost era. Besides the museum world, designer Karl Lagerfeld is one of the most prodigious collectors of Schnackenberg. Flipping through the pages of Kostume, Plakate und Dekorationen, it becomes quite clear that Schnackenberg’s collection is ground zero at the crossroads of early modern fashion where the cult of celebrity meets up with dance, music, theater and cabaret, film and the graphic medium. Berlin and Munich under Germany’s Weimar Republic in the first quarter of the 20th century produced just the atmosphere to feed this burgeoning industry. Rising inflation sparked a recklessness to live large for the moment and heightened a desire for escapism. An influx of Indian and East Asian dancers and musicians added to the artsy bohemian cultural mix. A new decadence and tolerance resulted. Film boldly featured provocative subject matter. Cabarets became popular venues giving rise to the demi-monde in which people from all social stations mixed more freely in a thriving underground economy and culture where there was a blurring of boundaries and of social codes. Noted art historian and cultural doyen, Oskar Bie astutely observes in his introduction to Schnackenberg’s publication that what unites the images is fantasy and advertisement. Schnackenberg uses the eye as an instrument to brilliantly construct and convey this double message. His personages never directly confront the viewer. Their eyes gaze off in the distance like those of the screenplayer and film star Hedamaria Scholz in Schnackenberg’s “Die Rodelhexe” movie poster. Their eyes follow the path of a dance composition or become a transfixed and ogling male gaze such as the iconic 1911 Odeon Casino poster...

"Backyards" Early 20th Century Watercolor Fauvism Social Realism American Scene Note: We have three similar in style works from 1911 available now on 1stDibs. All are framed identic...

Colin Campbell Cooper is perhaps best known for his marvelous urban depictions of New York and Philadelphia, which encapsulate the vibrant modernity of these street scenes and skyscr...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extol...

Medium: original etching. Printed in 1910 by K. K. Hof and the Staatsdruckerei of Vienna. Plate size: 8 1/2 x 11 inches (225 x 280mm). Sheet size: 11 x 15 1/2 inches. A nice, dark im...

Il Kaiser is an original drawing in China ink, watercolor and white lead on creamy cardboard realized by Gabriele Galantara (1865-1937). In good conditions. This artwotk presents ...

Drypoint and aquatint (brown ink) on cream paper. Signed "Rehn" in pencil on the lower right margin. Titled and numbered in pencil on the lower left margin. Edition of 25 prints. Fr...

CLAUDE ALLIN SHEPPERSON, ARA, ARWS (1867-1921) Petrushka – Scene from the Ballets Russes Signed l.l.: Shepperson Watercolour over traces of pencil Framed 30.5 by 45.5 cm., 12 by 18 in. (frame size 52.5 by 66 cm., 20 ¾ by 26 in.) Provenance: Richard C Davis...

7 volumes, complete. Six 8vo volumes (292 x 190 mm), and one 4to (Huitieme année, 1919, 310 x 245 mm). Publisher's pictorial paper board portfolios, patterned endpapers, housing loos...

Sunbathing Etching and color aquatint on watermarked Umbria Italy paper, c. 1915 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Annotated: "No. 6" in pencil lower left (see photo) An early color print by the artist Condition: Excellent Plate size: 11-3/4 x 15-7-8" (30 x 40.3 cm.) Frame size: 21 x 26 1/8 x 1 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist By decent Louis Oscar Griffith (1875-1956) Born in Greencastle, Indiana, Griffith grew up in Dallas, Texas where Texas artist and teacher Charles Franklin Reaugh recognized young “Griff’s” artistic talent. At age 18, Griffith moved to St. Louis where he attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. In 1895, he moved to Chicago where he worked making color prints for the firm Barnes and Crosby. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and during a brief stay in New York, the National Academy of Design. A successful commercial artist with a studio in the Chicago Loop...

Title page numbered: 263/450. Collotype is presented in a handmade, gold-leaf frame.

Drinkers is an Etching realized by Georges Jeanniot in 1914. Signed on the lower, titled. Good condition.

This evocative early 20th-century oil painting by Scottish artist Robert Russell MacNee RGI (1880-1952) depicts a farm with a track, horses, and figures. MacNee was an accomplished p...

Philip Leslie Hale New England Autumn, 1910 Pastel on canvas 25 x 30 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist Sotheby's New York, American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, May 24, 1990, Lot 125 R. Anne McCarthy Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts (gift from the above) Private Collection, Massachusetts Exhibited: Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Tenth Annual Philadelphia Watercolor Exhibition, November 10 - December 15, 1912, no. 13. Painter, teacher and writer, Philip Leslie Hale is recognized for his decorative paintings of the female figure and for his interior scenes with figures as well as for his progressive approach to painting. However, his career went through several phases that included sporting scenes, figural studies of women including nudes, portraits, and allegorical works reflecting the overwhelming forces of nature. Of the Boston painters of his time, he seemed the most fully committed to Impressionism, and his technique suggests the influence of French impressionist Edgar Degas. In most of his paintings, the landscape was more important than the figure. He was a prolific writer in local newspapers and periodicals about the contemporary art scene, discussing the work of his Boston colleagues. He also wrote numerous books on art and art history including a study of Vermeer that was published in 1913. Among his writings are 1892 newspaper columns for Arcadia Magazine titled "Letters from Paris", art criticism for the Boston Herald from 1905 to 1909; and art criticism for the Boston Evening Transcript. He argued for the Boston School of Art as led by Edmund Tarbell whose style was based on Impressionism with elements of Realism, especially figure painting. Hale was born in Boston in 1865, the son Reverend Edward Hale, a Boston clergyman and a relative of Nathan Hale. He studied with Ellen Day Hale, his sister, and Edmund Tarbell at the Boston Museum School, with J. Alden Weir at the Art Students League in New York City, and then went to Paris for further studies at the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He remained in France for fifteen years, returning to America about 1895. During that time, from 1888, he spent summers at Giverny, France with his good friend, artist, Theodore Butler, and became well acquainted with Claude Monet. Traveling throughout Europe, Hale visited the major museums, and copied the works of Ingres, Vermeer, Watteau and Michelangelo. Hale married Lilian Westcott Hale...

The priest is an original ink and watercolor drawing realized by Gabriele Galantara in the Early 20th Century. The status of preservation Good. The artwork is depicted skillfully t...

Beautiful turn-of-the-century landscape of a path along a river bend by Alice L. Meussdorffer, a pupil of William Keith, (American, 1871-1949). Presented in a wooden frame. Signed "Alice Meussdorffer" and dated "1900" lower right. Image size, 17"H x 20.75"W. Wood frame; 19"H x 23"L x 1.5"D. Born in San Francisco, CA on Sept. 5, 1871. Alice was the daughter of John C. Meussdorffer who made the finest hats on the West Coast during the 19th century. A pupil of William Keith, she was most active as a painter at the turn of the century. During the latter part of her life she gained fame as a florist. Her prize-winning dahlia bulbs were shipped all over the world. She was also an ardent hiker and member of the Sierra Club. One of her dahlias was named "Kaweah" after the river in the Kings Canyon...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extolling his artistic merits during his lifetime to showing something of a feigned disdain- more reflective of the world political order than a true change of heart for Hodler’s work. After years of Hodler being all but a footnote in the annals of art history and generally ignored, finally, the pendulum has righted itself once again. Recent retrospective exhibitions in Europe and the United States have indicated not only a joyful rediscovery of Hodler’s art but a firm conviction that his work and world view hold particular relevance today. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is not only a collection of printed work reflecting the best of all of his painted work created up to 1914 just before the outbreak of World War I, the portfolio itself is an encapsulation of Hodler’s ethos, Parallelisme. Hodler developed his philosophy of Parallelisme as a unifying approach to art which strips away detail in search of harmony. By means of abstraction, symmetry and repetition, Hodler sought ways to depict Nature’s essence and her fundamental, universal order. He believed these universal laws governing the natural, observable world extend to the spiritual realm. Symbolist in nature with Romantic undertones, his works are equally portraits of these universal concepts and feelings governing all life as they are a visual portrait in the formal sense. Whether his subject is a solitary tree, a moment in battle, mortal fear, despair, the awe inspired by a vast mountain range, a tender moment or even the collective conviction in a belief, Hodler unveils this guiding principle of Parallelisme. Several aspects of Hodler’s portfolio reinforce his tenets of Parallelisme. The Table of Contents clearly preferences a harmonious design over detail. The two columns, consisting of twenty lines each, list the images by order of appearance using their German titles. The abbreviated titles are somewhat cryptic in that they obscure the identities of the sitters. Like the image Hodler presents, they are distillations of the sitter without any extraneous details. This shortening was also done in an effort to maintain a harmonious symmetry of the Table of Contents, themselves, and keep titles to a one-line limit. The twenty-fourth title: “Bildnis des Schweizerischen Gesandten C.” was so long, even with abbreviation, that it required two lines; so, for the sake of maintaining symmetry, the fortieth title: “Bauernmadchen” was omitted from the list. This explains why the images are not numbered. Hodler’s reasoning is not purely esoteric. Symmetry and pattern reach beyond mere formal design principles. Finding sameness and imposing it over disorder goes to the root of Hodler’s identity and his art. A Swiss native, Hodler was bi-lingual and spoke German and French. Each printed image, even number forty, have titles in both of Hodler’s languages. Certainly, there was a market for Hodler’s work among francophones and this inclusion may have been a polite gesture to that end; however, this is the only place in the portfolio which includes French. With German titles at the lower left of each image, Hodler’s name at bottom center and corresponding French titles at the lower right of each image, there is a harmony and symmetry woven into all aspects of the portfolio. This holds true for the page design, as it applies to each printed image and as it describes the Swiss artist himself. Seen in this light, Hodler’s portfolio of printed work is the epitome of Hodler’s Parallelisme. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is also one of the most significant documents to best tell the story of how Hodler, from Switzerland, became caught between political cross-hairs and how the changing tides of nations directly impacted the artist during his lifetime as well as the accessibility of his art for generations to come. The Munich-based publisher of the portfolio, R. Piper & Co., Verlag, plays a crucial role in this story. Publishing on a wide range of subjects from philosophy and world religion to music, literature and the visual arts; the publisher’s breadth of inquiry within any one genre was equal in scope. Their marketing strategy to publish multiple works on Hodler offers great insight as to what a hot commodity Hodler was at that time. R.Piper & Co.’s Almanach, which they published in 1914 in commemoration of their first ten years in business, clearly illustrates the rapid succession- strategically calculated for achieving the deepest and broadest impact - in which they released three works on Hodler to hit the market by the close of 1914. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was their premier publication. It preceded C.A. Loosli’s Die Zeichnungen Ferdinand Hodlers, a print portfolio after 50 drawings by Hodler which was released in Autumn of 1914 at the mid-level price-point of 75-150 Marks; and a third less expensive collection of prints after original works by Hodler, which had not been included in either of the first two portfolios, was released at the end of that year entitled Ferdinand Hodler by Dr. Ewald Bender. The title and timing of DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS' debut leaves little doubt as to the connection it has with another avant-garde portfolio of art prints, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, released in 5 installments from 1908 -1914 by Galerie Miethke in Vienna. Hodler, himself, was involved in Klimt’s ground-breaking project. As the owner of Klimt’s 1901 painting, “Judith with the Head of Holifernes” which appears as the ninth collotype print in the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts, Hodler was obliged to grant access of the painting to the art printers in Vienna for them to create the collotype sometime before 1908. Hodler had been previously invited in 1904 to take part in what would be the last exhibition of the Vienna Secession before Klimt and others associated with Galerie Miethke broke away. In an interview that same year, Hodler indicated that he respected and was impressed by Klimt. Hodler’s esteem for Klimt went beyond the art itself; he emulated Klimt’s method aimed at increasing his market reach and appeal to a wider audience by creating a print portfolio of his painted work. By 1914, Hodler and his publisher had the benefit of hindsight to learn from Klimt’s Das Werk publication. Responding to the sluggish sales of Klimt’s expensive endeavor, Hodler’s publisher devised the same diversified 1-2-3 strategy for selling Hodler’s Das Werk portfolio as they did with regards to all three works on Hodler they published that year. For their premium tier of DAS WERKS FERDINAND HODLERS, R. Piper & Co. issued an exclusive Museum quality edition of 15 examples on which Hodler signed each page. At a cost of 600 Marks, this was generally on par with Klimt’s asking price of 600 Kronen for his Das Werk portfolio. A middle-tiered Preferred edition of 30, costing somewhat less and with Hodler’s signature only on the Title Page, was also available. The General edition, targeting the largest audience with its much more affordable price of 150 Marks, is distinguishable by its smaller size. Rather than use the subscription format Miethke had chosen for Klimt’s portfolios which proved to have had its challenges, R. Piper & Co. employed a different strategy. In addition to instantly gratifying the buyer with all 40 of the prints comprising DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS and the choice among three price points, they advertised in German journals a fourth possibility of ordering single prints from them directly. These printed images are easily discernible from the three complete folio editions. The paper size of the single purchased images is of the larger format like the Museum and Preferred editions, measuring 65 h x 50 w cm; however, the paper itself is the same copper print paper used in the General edition and then mounted on poster board. The publishing house positioned itself to be a direct retailer of Hodler’s art. They astutely recognized the potential for profitability and the importance, therefore, of having proprietary control over his graphic works. R. Piper & Co. owned the exclusive printing rights to Hodler’s best work found in their three publications dating from 1914. That same year, a competing publication out of Weimar entitled Ferdinand Hodler: Ein Deutungsversuch von Hans Muhlestein appeared. Its author, a young scholar, expressed his frustration with the limited availability of printable work by Hodler. In his Author’s Note on page 19, dated Easter, 1914, Muhlestein confirms that the publisher of Hodler’s three works from that same year owned the exclusive reproductive rights to Hodler’s printed original work. He goes further to explain that even after offering to pay to use certain of those images in his book, the publisher refused. Clearly, a lot of jockeying for position in what was perceived as a hot market was occurring in 1914. Instead, their timing couldn’t have been more ill-fated, and what began with such high hopes suddenly found a much different market amid a hostile climate. The onset of WWI directly impacted sales. Many, including Ferdinand Hodler, publicly protested the September invasion by Germany of France in which the Reims Cathedral, re-built in the 13th century, was shelled, destroying priceless stained glass and statuary and burning off the iron roof and badly damaging its wooden interior. Thomas Gaehtgens, Director of the Getty Research Institute describes how the bombing of Reims Cathedral triggered blindingly powerful and deeply-felt ultra-nationalistic responses: “The event profoundly shocked French intellectuals, who for the most part had an intense admiration for German literature, music and art. By relying on press accounts and abstracting from the visual propagandistic content, they were unable to interpret the siege of Reims without turning away from German culture in disgust. Similarly, the German intelligentsia and bourgeoisie were also shocked to find themselves described as vandals and barbarians. Ninety-three writers, scientists, university professors, and artists signed a protest, directed against the French insults, that defended the actions of the German army.” In similar fashion, a flurry of open letters published in German newspapers and journals as well as telegrams and postcards sent directly to Hodler following his outcry in support of Reims reflected the collectively critical reaction to Hodler’s position. Loosli documents that among the list of telegrams Hodler received was one from none other than his publisher in Germany, R.Piper & Co. Allegiances were questioned. The market for Hodler in Germany immediately softened. Matters worsened for the publisher beyond the German backlash to Hodler and his loss of appeal in the home market; with the war in full swing until 1918, there was little chance a German publisher would have much interest coming from outside of Germany and Austria. Following the war and Hodler’s death in 1918, the economy in Germany continued to spiral out and just 5 years later, hyper-inflation had rendered its currency worthless vis-a-vis its value in the pre-war years. Like the economy, Hodler’s reputation was slow to find currency in these difficult times. Even many French art fans had turned sour on Hodler as they considered his long-standing relationship in German and Austrian art circles. Thus, the portfolio’s rarity in Hodler’s lifetime and, consequently, the availability of these printed images from DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS since his death has been scarce. In many ways, Hodler and his portfolios were casualties of war. Thwarted from their intended purpose of reaching a wide audience and show-casing Parallelisme, Hodler’s unique approach to art, this important, undated work has been both elusive and shrouded in mystery. Perhaps DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was left undated as a means of affirming the timelessness of Hodler’s art. Digging back into the past, Hodler’s contemporaries, like R. Piper, C.A. Loosli and Hans Muhlestein, indeed provide the keys to unequivocally clarify what has largely been mired in obscurity. Just after Hodler’s death, the May, 1918 issue of the Burlington Review ran a small column which opined hope for better access to R.Piper & Co.’s DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS; 100 years later, it is finally possible. Hodler’s voice rings out through these printed works. Once more, his modern approach to depicting portraits, landscapes and grand scale scenes of Swiss history speak to us of what is universal. Engaging with any one of these images is the chance to connect to Hodler’s vision and his world view- weltanschauung in German, vision du monde in French- however one expresses these concepts through language, its message embedded in his work is the same: “We differ from one another, but we are like each other even more. What unifies us is greater and more powerful than what divides us.” Today, Hodler’s art couldn’t be more timely. FERDINAND HODLER (SWISS, 1853-1918) explored Parallelisme through figurative poses evocative of music, dance and ritual. His images of sex, night, desertion and death as well as his many landscapes exploring the universal longing for harmony with Nature are unique and important works embodying a Symbolist paradigm. Truly a Modern Master, Hodler’s influence can be felt in the work of Gustav Klimt and Kolomon Moser and subsequent Expressionist artists such as Egon Schiele. He was born into an impoverished family in Bern, Switzerland in 1853. His entire family succumbed to tuberculosis, and he was orphaned by the age of 13, the only surviving child among his 13 siblings. In the absence of family, the influence and guidance which his art instructors provided Hodler was foundational and profound. Hodler began formal studies in 1872 at the Geneva School of Design. Under Barthelemy Menn, Hodler was drawn to the ordered beauty of Euclidian geometry and Durer’s fundamentals of human proportion that proved to be guiding principles informing his art throughout his life. By the 1880s, Hodler began to enjoy some recognition for his work which put him on a new path towards stability. Remaining in Geneva, he became assistant to the well-known muralist, Edouard Castres. Following his first solo show in 1885, Hodler’s work took on a Symbolist quality. He frequently associated with a group of Swiss Symbolist...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extolling his artistic merits during his lifetime to showing something of a feigned disdain- more reflective of the world political order than a true change of heart for Hodler’s work. After years of Hodler being all but a footnote in the annals of art history and generally ignored, finally, the pendulum has righted itself once again. Recent retrospective exhibitions in Europe and the United States have indicated not only a joyful rediscovery of Hodler’s art but a firm conviction that his work and world view hold particular relevance today. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is not only a collection of printed work reflecting the best of all of his painted work created up to 1914 just before the outbreak of World War I, the portfolio itself is an encapsulation of Hodler’s ethos, Parallelisme. Hodler developed his philosophy of Parallelisme as a unifying approach to art which strips away detail in search of harmony. By means of abstraction, symmetry and repetition, Hodler sought ways to depict Nature’s essence and her fundamental, universal order. He believed these universal laws governing the natural, observable world extend to the spiritual realm. Symbolist in nature with Romantic undertones, his works are equally portraits of these universal concepts and feelings governing all life as they are a visual portrait in the formal sense. Whether his subject is a solitary tree, a moment in battle, mortal fear, despair, the awe inspired by a vast mountain range, a tender moment or even the collective conviction in a belief, Hodler unveils this guiding principle of Parallelisme. Several aspects of Hodler’s portfolio reinforce his tenets of Parallelisme. The Table of Contents clearly preferences a harmonious design over detail. The two columns, consisting of twenty lines each, list the images by order of appearance using their German titles. The abbreviated titles are somewhat cryptic in that they obscure the identities of the sitters. Like the image Hodler presents, they are distillations of the sitter without any extraneous details. This shortening was also done in an effort to maintain a harmonious symmetry of the Table of Contents, themselves, and keep titles to a one-line limit. The twenty-fourth title: “Bildnis des Schweizerischen Gesandten C.” was so long, even with abbreviation, that it required two lines; so, for the sake of maintaining symmetry, the fortieth title: “Bauernmadchen” was omitted from the list. This explains why the images are not numbered. Hodler’s reasoning is not purely esoteric. Symmetry and pattern reach beyond mere formal design principles. Finding sameness and imposing it over disorder goes to the root of Hodler’s identity and his art. A Swiss native, Hodler was bi-lingual and spoke German and French. Each printed image, even number forty, have titles in both of Hodler’s languages. Certainly, there was a market for Hodler’s work among francophones and this inclusion may have been a polite gesture to that end; however, this is the only place in the portfolio which includes French. With German titles at the lower left of each image, Hodler’s name at bottom center and corresponding French titles at the lower right of each image, there is a harmony and symmetry woven into all aspects of the portfolio. This holds true for the page design, as it applies to each printed image and as it describes the Swiss artist himself. Seen in this light, Hodler’s portfolio of printed work is the epitome of Hodler’s Parallelisme. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is also one of the most significant documents to best tell the story of how Hodler, from Switzerland, became caught between political cross-hairs and how the changing tides of nations directly impacted the artist during his lifetime as well as the accessibility of his art for generations to come. The Munich-based publisher of the portfolio, R. Piper & Co., Verlag, plays a crucial role in this story. Publishing on a wide range of subjects from philosophy and world religion to music, literature and the visual arts; the publisher’s breadth of inquiry within any one genre was equal in scope. Their marketing strategy to publish multiple works on Hodler offers great insight as to what a hot commodity Hodler was at that time. R.Piper & Co.’s Almanach, which they published in 1914 in commemoration of their first ten years in business, clearly illustrates the rapid succession- strategically calculated for achieving the deepest and broadest impact - in which they released three works on Hodler to hit the market by the close of 1914. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was their premier publication. It preceded C.A. Loosli’s Die Zeichnungen Ferdinand Hodlers, a print portfolio after 50 drawings by Hodler which was released in Autumn of 1914 at the mid-level price-point of 75-150 Marks; and a third less expensive collection of prints after original works by Hodler, which had not been included in either of the first two portfolios, was released at the end of that year entitled Ferdinand Hodler by Dr. Ewald Bender. The title and timing of DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS' debut leaves little doubt as to the connection it has with another avant-garde portfolio of art prints, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, released in 5 installments from 1908 -1914 by Galerie Miethke in Vienna. Hodler, himself, was involved in Klimt’s ground-breaking project. As the owner of Klimt’s 1901 painting, “Judith with the Head of Holifernes” which appears as the ninth collotype print in the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts, Hodler was obliged to grant access of the painting to the art printers in Vienna for them to create the collotype sometime before 1908. Hodler had been previously invited in 1904 to take part in what would be the last exhibition of the Vienna Secession before Klimt and others associated with Galerie Miethke broke away. In an interview that same year, Hodler indicated that he respected and was impressed by Klimt. Hodler’s esteem for Klimt went beyond the art itself; he emulated Klimt’s method aimed at increasing his market reach and appeal to a wider audience by creating a print portfolio of his painted work. By 1914, Hodler and his publisher had the benefit of hindsight to learn from Klimt’s Das Werk publication. Responding to the sluggish sales of Klimt’s expensive endeavor, Hodler’s publisher devised the same diversified 1-2-3 strategy for selling Hodler’s Das Werk portfolio as they did with regards to all three works on Hodler they published that year. For their premium tier of DAS WERKS FERDINAND HODLERS, R. Piper & Co. issued an exclusive Museum quality edition of 15 examples on which Hodler signed each page. At a cost of 600 Marks, this was generally on par with Klimt’s asking price of 600 Kronen for his Das Werk portfolio. A middle-tiered Preferred edition of 30, costing somewhat less and with Hodler’s signature only on the Title Page, was also available. The General edition, targeting the largest audience with its much more affordable price of 150 Marks, is distinguishable by its smaller size. Rather than use the subscription format Miethke had chosen for Klimt’s portfolios which proved to have had its challenges, R. Piper & Co. employed a different strategy. In addition to instantly gratifying the buyer with all 40 of the prints comprising DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS and the choice among three price points, they advertised in German journals a fourth possibility of ordering single prints from them directly. These printed images are easily discernible from the three complete folio editions. The paper size of the single purchased images is of the larger format like the Museum and Preferred editions, measuring 65 h x 50 w cm; however, the paper itself is the same copper print paper used in the General edition and then mounted on poster board. The publishing house positioned itself to be a direct retailer of Hodler’s art. They astutely recognized the potential for profitability and the importance, therefore, of having proprietary control over his graphic works. R. Piper & Co. owned the exclusive printing rights to Hodler’s best work found in their three publications dating from 1914. That same year, a competing publication out of Weimar entitled Ferdinand Hodler: Ein Deutungsversuch von Hans Muhlestein appeared. Its author, a young scholar, expressed his frustration with the limited availability of printable work by Hodler. In his Author’s Note on page 19, dated Easter, 1914, Muhlestein confirms that the publisher of Hodler’s three works from that same year owned the exclusive reproductive rights to Hodler’s printed original work. He goes further to explain that even after offering to pay to use certain of those images in his book, the publisher refused. Clearly, a lot of jockeying for position in what was perceived as a hot market was occurring in 1914. Instead, their timing couldn’t have been more ill-fated, and what began with such high hopes suddenly found a much different market amid a hostile climate. The onset of WWI directly impacted sales. Many, including Ferdinand Hodler, publicly protested the September invasion by Germany of France in which the Reims Cathedral, re-built in the 13th century, was shelled, destroying priceless stained glass and statuary and burning off the iron roof and badly damaging its wooden interior. Thomas Gaehtgens, Director of the Getty Research Institute describes how the bombing of Reims Cathedral triggered blindingly powerful and deeply-felt ultra-nationalistic responses: “The event profoundly shocked French intellectuals, who for the most part had an intense admiration for German literature, music and art. By relying on press accounts and abstracting from the visual propagandistic content, they were unable to interpret the siege of Reims without turning away from German culture in disgust. Similarly, the German intelligentsia and bourgeoisie were also shocked to find themselves described as vandals and barbarians. Ninety-three writers, scientists, university professors, and artists signed a protest, directed against the French insults, that defended the actions of the German army.” In similar fashion, a flurry of open letters published in German newspapers and journals as well as telegrams and postcards sent directly to Hodler following his outcry in support of Reims reflected the collectively critical reaction to Hodler’s position. Loosli documents that among the list of telegrams Hodler received was one from none other than his publisher in Germany, R.Piper & Co. Allegiances were questioned. The market for Hodler in Germany immediately softened. Matters worsened for the publisher beyond the German backlash to Hodler and his loss of appeal in the home market; with the war in full swing until 1918, there was little chance a German publisher would have much interest coming from outside of Germany and Austria. Following the war and Hodler’s death in 1918, the economy in Germany continued to spiral out and just 5 years later, hyper-inflation had rendered its currency worthless vis-a-vis its value in the pre-war years. Like the economy, Hodler’s reputation was slow to find currency in these difficult times. Even many French art fans had turned sour on Hodler as they considered his long-standing relationship in German and Austrian art circles. Thus, the portfolio’s rarity in Hodler’s lifetime and, consequently, the availability of these printed images from DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS since his death has been scarce. In many ways, Hodler and his portfolios were casualties of war. Thwarted from their intended purpose of reaching a wide audience and show-casing Parallelisme, Hodler’s unique approach to art, this important, undated work has been both elusive and shrouded in mystery. Perhaps DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was left undated as a means of affirming the timelessness of Hodler’s art. Digging back into the past, Hodler’s contemporaries, like R. Piper, C.A. Loosli and Hans Muhlestein, indeed provide the keys to unequivocally clarify what has largely been mired in obscurity. Just after Hodler’s death, the May, 1918 issue of the Burlington Review ran a small column which opined hope for better access to R.Piper & Co.’s DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS; 100 years later, it is finally possible. Hodler’s voice rings out through these printed works. Once more, his modern approach to depicting portraits, landscapes and grand scale scenes of Swiss history speak to us of what is universal. Engaging with any one of these images is the chance to connect to Hodler’s vision and his world view- weltanschauung in German, vision du monde in French- however one expresses these concepts through language, its message embedded in his work is the same: “We differ from one another, but we are like each other even more. What unifies us is greater and more powerful than what divides us.” Today, Hodler’s art couldn’t be more timely. FERDINAND HODLER (SWISS, 1853-1918) explored Parallelisme through figurative poses evocative of music, dance and ritual. His images of sex, night, desertion and death as well as his many landscapes exploring the universal longing for harmony with Nature are unique and important works embodying a Symbolist paradigm. Truly a Modern Master, Hodler’s influence can be felt in the work of Gustav Klimt and Kolomon Moser...

Fattoria Bolla is a beautiful and rare color lithograph printed by G. Ricordi and C. Milano, Milan, between 1895 and 1914. A vintage poster representing a farmer feeding her son wit...

Rousselet, French School early 20th century Portrait of an officier, 1915 Wax crayon on paper signed "E Rousselet" and dated 1915 lower right 51.5 x 31.5 cm In quite good condition, ...

In 1911, the original poster "Biplace de l'armée Française" emerged as a captivating tribute to the French military's biplane, showcasing the nation's commitment to aviation innovation. Crafted by the artist Gamy, this artwork highlighted the sleek design and formidable presence of the biplane against a backdrop evoking the spirit of aerial prowess. Gamy demonstrated a keen eye for capturing the essence of military aviation...

Galloping Horses is a wonderful and original drawing in charcoal on paper, realized by the italian divisions artist Giuseppe Cominetti. Hand-signed in charcoal and dated on the lower...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extolling his artistic merits during his lifetime to showing something of a feigned disdain- more reflective of the world political order than a true change of heart for Hodler’s work. After years of Hodler being all but a footnote in the annals of art history and generally ignored, finally, the pendulum has righted itself once again. Recent retrospective exhibitions in Europe and the United States have indicated not only a joyful rediscovery of Hodler’s art but a firm conviction that his work and world view hold particular relevance today. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is not only a collection of printed work reflecting the best of all of his painted work created up to 1914 just before the outbreak of World War I, the portfolio itself is an encapsulation of Hodler’s ethos, Parallelisme. Hodler developed his philosophy of Parallelisme as a unifying approach to art which strips away detail in search of harmony. By means of abstraction, symmetry and repetition, Hodler sought ways to depict Nature’s essence and her fundamental, universal order. He believed these universal laws governing the natural, observable world extend to the spiritual realm. Symbolist in nature with Romantic undertones, his works are equally portraits of these universal concepts and feelings governing all life as they are a visual portrait in the formal sense. Whether his subject is a solitary tree, a moment in battle, mortal fear, despair, the awe inspired by a vast mountain range, a tender moment or even the collective conviction in a belief, Hodler unveils this guiding principle of Parallelisme. Several aspects of Hodler’s portfolio reinforce his tenets of Parallelisme. The Table of Contents clearly preferences a harmonious design over detail. The two columns, consisting of twenty lines each, list the images by order of appearance using their German titles. The abbreviated titles are somewhat cryptic in that they obscure the identities of the sitters. Like the image Hodler presents, they are distillations of the sitter without any extraneous details. This shortening was also done in an effort to maintain a harmonious symmetry of the Table of Contents, themselves, and keep titles to a one-line limit. The twenty-fourth title: “Bildnis des Schweizerischen Gesandten C.” was so long, even with abbreviation, that it required two lines; so, for the sake of maintaining symmetry, the fortieth title: “Bauernmadchen” was omitted from the list. This explains why the images are not numbered. Hodler’s reasoning is not purely esoteric. Symmetry and pattern reach beyond mere formal design principles. Finding sameness and imposing it over disorder goes to the root of Hodler’s identity and his art. A Swiss native, Hodler was bi-lingual and spoke German and French. Each printed image, even number forty, have titles in both of Hodler’s languages. Certainly, there was a market for Hodler’s work among francophones and this inclusion may have been a polite gesture to that end; however, this is the only place in the portfolio which includes French. With German titles at the lower left of each image, Hodler’s name at bottom center and corresponding French titles at the lower right of each image, there is a harmony and symmetry woven into all aspects of the portfolio. This holds true for the page design, as it applies to each printed image and as it describes the Swiss artist himself. Seen in this light, Hodler’s portfolio of printed work is the epitome of Hodler’s Parallelisme. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is also one of the most significant documents to best tell the story of how Hodler, from Switzerland, became caught between political cross-hairs and how the changing tides of nations directly impacted the artist during his lifetime as well as the accessibility of his art for generations to come. The Munich-based publisher of the portfolio, R. Piper & Co., Verlag, plays a crucial role in this story. Publishing on a wide range of subjects from philosophy and world religion to music, literature and the visual arts; the publisher’s breadth of inquiry within any one genre was equal in scope. Their marketing strategy to publish multiple works on Hodler offers great insight as to what a hot commodity Hodler was at that time. R.Piper & Co.’s Almanach, which they published in 1914 in commemoration of their first ten years in business, clearly illustrates the rapid succession- strategically calculated for achieving the deepest and broadest impact - in which they released three works on Hodler to hit the market by the close of 1914. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was their premier publication. It preceded C.A. Loosli’s Die Zeichnungen Ferdinand Hodlers, a print portfolio after 50 drawings by Hodler which was released in Autumn of 1914 at the mid-level price-point of 75-150 Marks; and a third less expensive collection of prints after original works by Hodler, which had not been included in either of the first two portfolios, was released at the end of that year entitled Ferdinand Hodler by Dr. Ewald Bender. The title and timing of DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS' debut leaves little doubt as to the connection it has with another avant-garde portfolio of art prints, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, released in 5 installments from 1908 -1914 by Galerie Miethke in Vienna. Hodler, himself, was involved in Klimt’s ground-breaking project. As the owner of Klimt’s 1901 painting, “Judith with the Head of Holifernes” which appears as the ninth collotype print in the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts, Hodler was obliged to grant access of the painting to the art printers in Vienna for them to create the collotype sometime before 1908. Hodler had been previously invited in 1904 to take part in what would be the last exhibition of the Vienna Secession before Klimt and others associated with Galerie Miethke broke away. In an interview that same year, Hodler indicated that he respected and was impressed by Klimt. Hodler’s esteem for Klimt went beyond the art itself; he emulated Klimt’s method aimed at increasing his market reach and appeal to a wider audience by creating a print portfolio of his painted work. By 1914, Hodler and his publisher had the benefit of hindsight to learn from Klimt’s Das Werk publication. Responding to the sluggish sales of Klimt’s expensive endeavor, Hodler’s publisher devised the same diversified 1-2-3 strategy for selling Hodler’s Das Werk portfolio as they did with regards to all three works on Hodler they published that year. For their premium tier of DAS WERKS FERDINAND HODLERS, R. Piper & Co. issued an exclusive Museum quality edition of 15 examples on which Hodler signed each page. At a cost of 600 Marks, this was generally on par with Klimt’s asking price of 600 Kronen for his Das Werk portfolio. A middle-tiered Preferred edition of 30, costing somewhat less and with Hodler’s signature only on the Title Page, was also available. The General edition, targeting the largest audience with its much more affordable price of 150 Marks, is distinguishable by its smaller size. Rather than use the subscription format Miethke had chosen for Klimt’s portfolios which proved to have had its challenges, R. Piper & Co. employed a different strategy. In addition to instantly gratifying the buyer with all 40 of the prints comprising DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS and the choice among three price points, they advertised in German journals a fourth possibility of ordering single prints from them directly. These printed images are easily discernible from the three complete folio editions. The paper size of the single purchased images is of the larger format like the Museum and Preferred editions, measuring 65 h x 50 w cm; however, the paper itself is the same copper print paper used in the General edition and then mounted on poster board. The publishing house positioned itself to be a direct retailer of Hodler’s art. They astutely recognized the potential for profitability and the importance, therefore, of having proprietary control over his graphic works. R. Piper & Co. owned the exclusive printing rights to Hodler’s best work found in their three publications dating from 1914. That same year, a competing publication out of Weimar entitled Ferdinand Hodler: Ein Deutungsversuch von Hans...

A superb landscape oil painting on canvas by Sir James Lawton Wingate, President of The Royal Scottish Academy. This painting shows a windswept Scottish landscape and a "glimpse of t...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extol...

Rudolf Kaesbach (1873 Gladbach - 1955 Berlin), Forest idyll, around 1915. Bronze, gold and golden brown patina, with cast plinth, mounted on a marble base (5 cm high), total height 36 cm, dimensions of the bronze: 31 cm (height) x 17 cm (length) x 12 cm (width). Weight 4,6 kg, signed on the plinth "R.[udolf] KAESBACH". - a few rubbed areas, overall in excellent condition for its age - Soulmate - The bronze sculpture depicts a young woman in an intimate exchange with a deer that accompanies her. The animal pauses to turn toward her, while the nude beauty slows her pace to look into the deer's eyes and tenderly caress it with her hand. The woman and the deer are in inner harmony. Even though her lips remain motionless, she speaks the language of the animal with which she is deeply connected. The golden patina, which contrasts with the more naturalistic coloring of the deer, gives the young woman the appearance of a saint, even if she cannot be identified as such. At the same time, she evokes memories of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, or a nymph. But she lacks the ferocity. In her innocent naivety, she is more like a vestal virgin, who is not at home in the solitude of the forest. And yet, the young beauty, moving unclothed in the heart of nature, looks like a priestess with her hair tied up and a carefully carried bowl on her way to a sacred grove. In order to open up the above-mentioned associations, Kaesbach deliberately designed the female figure in such a way that she cannot be identified as a specific person. He has created an allegory of natural femininity, characteristic of Art Nouveau, in which the deer is far more than a companion animal. It displays the same gracefulness as the young woman, and the inner resemblance between the two makes the deer appear as her other self. In animal terms, it embodies her inner being, which also gives the deer an allegorical character. About the artist Rudolf Kaesbach studied sculpture at the Hanau Academy and worked in a bronze foundry in Paris in 1900. In order to work as an independent artist, he opened a workshop in Düsseldorf, where he cast bronzes from models he designed. In 1902 he made his debut at the German National Art Exhibition in Düsseldorf. The following year Kaesbach went to the academy in Brussels. There he was inspired by contemporary Belgian sculpture, especially the work of Constantin Meunier. He moved to Berlin, where he opened a studio in the villa district of Grunewald and devoted himself to life-size marble sculptures and the design of bronzes. From 1911, he regularly presented his works at the major art exhibitions in Berlin, as well as in Düsseldorf and Malmö. Between 1936 and 1939, he also created models for the Rosenthal porcelain factory. From 1939 to 1944, Kaesbach was represented at the major German art exhibitions in Munich. GERMAN VERSION Rudolf Kaesbach (1873 Gladbach - 1955 Berlin), Waldidyll, um 1915. Gold und goldbraun patinierte Bronze mit gegossener Plinthe, auf einem Marmorsockel montiert (5 cm Höhe), Gesamthöhe 36 cm, Maße der Bronze: 31 cm (Höhe) x 17 cm (Länge) x 12 cm (Breite). Gewicht 4,6 kg, auf der Plinthe mit „R.[udolf] KAESBACH“ signiert. - vereinzele beriebene Stellen, insgesamt in einem altersgemäß ausgezeichneten Zustand - Seelenverwandtschaft - Die Bronzeplastik veranschaulicht eine junge Frau im innigen Austausch mit einem sie begleitenden Reh. Das Tier hält inne, um sich zu ihr hochzuwenden, während die nackte Schönheit ihren Schritt verlangsamt, um dem Reh ebenfalls in die Augen zu schauen und es zärtlich mit der Hand zu liebkosen. Die Frau und das Reh sind in einem inneren Gleichklang. Auch wenn ihre Lippen unbewegt bleiben, spricht sie die Sprache des Tieres, mit dem sie auf eine tief empfundene Weise verbunden ist. Die im Kontrast zur naturalistischeren Einfärbung des Rehs aufstrahlende goldfarbene Patina lässt die junge Frau wie eine Heilige erscheinen, auch wenn sich nicht als Heilige identifizierbar ist. Zugleich ruft sie Erinnerungen an die Jagdgöttin Diana oder eine Nymphe hervor. Dafür fehlt ihr allerdings die Wildheit. In ihrer unschuldigen Naivität gemahnt sie vielmehr an eine Vestalin, die freilich nicht in der Waldeinsamkeit zu Hause ist. Und doch wirkt die sich unbekleidet im Herzen der Natur bewegende junge Schönheit wie eine Priesterin, die sich mit hochgebundenem Haar und der vorsichtig getragenen Schale und dem Wege zu einem Heiligen Hain befindet. Um die gennannten Assoziationen zu eröffnen, hat Kaesbach die Frauenfigur bewusst so gestaltet, dass sie nicht als konkrete Person identifizierbar ist. Damit hat er eine für den Jugendstil charakteristische Allegorie natürlicher Weiblichkeit geschaffen, bei der das Reh weit mehr als ein Begleittier ist. Es weist dieselbe grazile Anmut wie die junge Frau auf und der innere Gleichklag der beiden lässt das Reh als ihr anderen Ich erscheinen. Es verkörpert – ins Animalische übertragen - ihr inneres Wesen, wodurch auch dem Reh ein allegorischer Charakter zukommt. zum Künstler Rudolf Kaesbach studierte an der Akademie Hanau Bildhauerei und war im Jahr 1900 in einer Pariser Bronzegießerei tätig. Um sich als eigenständiger Künstler betätigen zu können, eröffnete er in Düsseldorf eine Werkstatt, in der er Bronzen nach selbstentworfenen Modellen goss. 1902 debütierte er auf der Deutschen Nationalen Kunstaustellung in Düsseldorf. Im Folgejahr ging Kaesbach an die Akademie nach Brüssel. Dort wurde er von der zeitgenössischen belgischen Bildhauerei, insbesondere vom Werk Constantin Meuniers, inspiriert. Zurückgekehrt zog er nach Berlin, wo er im Villenviertel Grunewald ein Atelier eröffnete und sich neben dem Entwurf für Bronzen der lebensgroßen Marmorbildhauerei widmete. Ab 1911 präsentierte er seine Werke regelmäßig auf den Großen Berliner Kunstausstellungen, aber auch in Düsseldorf und Malmö. Zwischen 1936 und 1939 fertigte er zudem Modelle für die Porzellan-Manufaktur Rosenthal an. Von 1939 bis 1944 war...

Fairy is an original lithograph on paper realized by Gérard Roojen (1869-1935), in 1918. Signed on the plate on the rear with description" le Musée du Livre 43-46-1918" In good con...

Charles Rumsey Puma is one of most recognized of small sculptures by the artist. The estate of artist Charles Rumsey has been represented by Lynda Ander...

A classic Alexander Drysdale bayou scene, with the characteristic orangey/peach Impressionistic glow, out of the estate of Kenneth Abshire of Gulfport, MS. If you clicked on this, yo...

In 1912, M. Campion introduced the original poster "Avion Monoplace," showcasing the innovation and excitement surrounding early aviation. The artwork featured a monoplane, a pioneer...

Erotic scene is an original Héliogravure artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by Micheal Von Zichy in 1911. Printed in only 300 copies, Leipzig;...

Sketches for female nudes is an original artwork realized by Jean Dreyfus-Stern in 1916. Pencil of paper. Hand-signed in pencil by the artist on the lower margin. Dated in pencil...

The circa 1910 original aviation poster by Calmont titled "L'atterrissage au couvent" is a captivating piece that captures the excitement and novelty of aviation during the early 20t...

A lush, historic watercolor figurative landscape by C. Harry Allis (American, 1870-1938). Signed and dated "C. Harry Allis 1919" lower right. Displ...

Studies for a Female Standing Nude is an original artwork realized by the french artist Ginsbourg in 1918. Original red pencil and pencil on paper. Hand-...

Drypoint and aquatint (brown ink) on cream paper. Signed "Rehn" in pencil on the lower right margin. Titled and numbered in pencil on the lower left margin. Edition of 25 prints. Fr...

Original cover illustration for Top-Notch Magazine, published October 1, 1919. Featuring an action-packed early football image of a player kicking a ball, this exciting, fresh-to-the-market pulp cover painting is signed lower right by Clyde Forsythe, an American illustrator who created a number of iconic American WWI propaganda posters...

This stunning charcoal drawing lithograph print on paper depicting a fanciful lion kidnapping a young woman was designed by Adolf Uzarski (1885-1970), a German artist. This drawing i...

Drypoint and aquatint (brown ink) on cream paper. Signed "Rehn" in pencil on the lower right margin. Titled and numbered in pencil on the lower left margin. Edition of 25 prints. Fro...

Ernest Stephen Lumsden RE, RSA Ernest Stephen Lumsden RE, RSA (1883 – 1948) Buddha Frame Size: 40.7cm x 52.5cm Image: 21cm x 34 cm Lumsden reference: 254 Edition 33/50 Whatman w...

Bernhard Hoetger’s 1914 Expressionist poster for the Darmstadt Artists' Colony’s (Darmstädter Künstlerkolonie) fourth and final exhibition depicts the legend of Saint George slaying ...

Antique American impressionist landscape oil painting by George Ames Aldrich (1872 - 1941). Oil on canvas, circa 1910. Signed. Displayed in a period impressionist frame. Image size,...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extolling his artistic merits during his lifetime to showing something of a feigned disdain- more reflective of the world political order than a true change of heart for Hodler’s work. After years of Hodler being all but a footnote in the annals of art history and generally ignored, finally, the pendulum has righted itself once again. Recent retrospective exhibitions in Europe and the United States have indicated not only a joyful rediscovery of Hodler’s art but a firm conviction that his work and world view hold particular relevance today. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is not only a collection of printed work reflecting the best of all of his painted work created up to 1914 just before the outbreak of World War I, the portfolio itself is an encapsulation of Hodler’s ethos, Parallelisme. Hodler developed his philosophy of Parallelisme as a unifying approach to art which strips away detail in search of harmony. By means of abstraction, symmetry and repetition, Hodler sought ways to depict Nature’s essence and her fundamental, universal order. He believed these universal laws governing the natural, observable world extend to the spiritual realm. Symbolist in nature with Romantic undertones, his works are equally portraits of these universal concepts and feelings governing all life as they are a visual portrait in the formal sense. Whether his subject is a solitary tree, a moment in battle, mortal fear, despair, the awe inspired by a vast mountain range, a tender moment or even the collective conviction in a belief, Hodler unveils this guiding principle of Parallelisme. Several aspects of Hodler’s portfolio reinforce his tenets of Parallelisme. The Table of Contents clearly preferences a harmonious design over detail. The two columns, consisting of twenty lines each, list the images by order of appearance using their German titles. The abbreviated titles are somewhat cryptic in that they obscure the identities of the sitters. Like the image Hodler presents, they are distillations of the sitter without any extraneous details. This shortening was also done in an effort to maintain a harmonious symmetry of the Table of Contents, themselves, and keep titles to a one-line limit. The twenty-fourth title: “Bildnis des Schweizerischen Gesandten C.” was so long, even with abbreviation, that it required two lines; so, for the sake of maintaining symmetry, the fortieth title: “Bauernmadchen” was omitted from the list. This explains why the images are not numbered. Hodler’s reasoning is not purely esoteric. Symmetry and pattern reach beyond mere formal design principles. Finding sameness and imposing it over disorder goes to the root of Hodler’s identity and his art. A Swiss native, Hodler was bi-lingual and spoke German and French. Each printed image, even number forty, have titles in both of Hodler’s languages. Certainly, there was a market for Hodler’s work among francophones and this inclusion may have been a polite gesture to that end; however, this is the only place in the portfolio which includes French. With German titles at the lower left of each image, Hodler’s name at bottom center and corresponding French titles at the lower right of each image, there is a harmony and symmetry woven into all aspects of the portfolio. This holds true for the page design, as it applies to each printed image and as it describes the Swiss artist himself. Seen in this light, Hodler’s portfolio of printed work is the epitome of Hodler’s Parallelisme. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is also one of the most significant documents to best tell the story of how Hodler, from Switzerland, became caught between political cross-hairs and how the changing tides of nations directly impacted the artist during his lifetime as well as the accessibility of his art for generations to come. The Munich-based publisher of the portfolio, R. Piper & Co., Verlag, plays a crucial role in this story. Publishing on a wide range of subjects from philosophy and world religion to music, literature and the visual arts; the publisher’s breadth of inquiry within any one genre was equal in scope. Their marketing strategy to publish multiple works on Hodler offers great insight as to what a hot commodity Hodler was at that time. R.Piper & Co.’s Almanach, which they published in 1914 in commemoration of their first ten years in business, clearly illustrates the rapid succession- strategically calculated for achieving the deepest and broadest impact - in which they released three works on Hodler to hit the market by the close of 1914. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was their premier publication. It preceded C.A. Loosli’s Die Zeichnungen Ferdinand Hodlers, a print portfolio after 50 drawings by Hodler which was released in Autumn of 1914 at the mid-level price-point of 75-150 Marks; and a third less expensive collection of prints after original works by Hodler, which had not been included in either of the first two portfolios, was released at the end of that year entitled Ferdinand Hodler by Dr. Ewald Bender. The title and timing of DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS' debut leaves little doubt as to the connection it has with another avant-garde portfolio of art prints, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, released in 5 installments from 1908 -1914 by Galerie Miethke in Vienna. Hodler, himself, was involved in Klimt’s ground-breaking project. As the owner of Klimt’s 1901 painting, “Judith with the Head of Holifernes” which appears as the ninth collotype print in the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts, Hodler was obliged to grant access of the painting to the art printers in Vienna for them to create the collotype sometime before 1908. Hodler had been previously invited in 1904 to take part in what would be the last exhibition of the Vienna Secession before Klimt and others associated with Galerie Miethke broke away. In an interview that same year, Hodler indicated that he respected and was impressed by Klimt. Hodler’s esteem for Klimt went beyond the art itself; he emulated Klimt’s method aimed at increasing his market reach and appeal to a wider audience by creating a print portfolio of his painted work. By 1914, Hodler and his publisher had the benefit of hindsight to learn from Klimt’s Das Werk publication. Responding to the sluggish sales of Klimt’s expensive endeavor, Hodler’s publisher devised the same diversified 1-2-3 strategy for selling Hodler’s Das Werk portfolio as they did with regards to all three works on Hodler they published that year. For their premium tier of DAS WERKS FERDINAND HODLERS, R. Piper & Co. issued an exclusive Museum quality edition of 15 examples on which Hodler signed each page. At a cost of 600 Marks, this was generally on par with Klimt’s asking price of 600 Kronen for his Das Werk portfolio. A middle-tiered Preferred edition of 30, costing somewhat less and with Hodler’s signature only on the Title Page, was also available. The General edition, targeting the largest audience with its much more affordable price of 150 Marks, is distinguishable by its smaller size. Rather than use the subscription format Miethke had chosen for Klimt’s portfolios which proved to have had its challenges, R. Piper & Co. employed a different strategy. In addition to instantly gratifying the buyer with all 40 of the prints comprising DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS and the choice among three price points, they advertised in German journals a fourth possibility of ordering single prints from them directly. These printed images are easily discernible from the three complete folio editions. The paper size of the single purchased images is of the larger format like the Museum and Preferred editions, measuring 65 h x 50 w cm; however, the paper itself is the same copper print paper used in the General edition and then mounted on poster board. The publishing house positioned itself to be a direct retailer of Hodler’s art. They astutely recognized the potential for profitability and the importance, therefore, of having proprietary control over his graphic works. R. Piper & Co. owned the exclusive printing rights to Hodler’s best work found in their three publications dating from 1914. That same year, a competing publication out of Weimar entitled Ferdinand Hodler: Ein Deutungsversuch von Hans...

Olof Thunman (1879–1944) Sweden Sandö, Wallda Varby, Halland, 1913 oil on canvas (laid on panel) unsigned unframed 31 x 47 cm (approx. 12.2 x 18.5 in) framed 42 x 58 cm (approx. 16...

John Rettig Marblehead Harbor, Grey Day, 1919 Signed and dated lower right Oil on academy board 15 x 18 inches Dubbed as the “Wizard of Scenic Creation”, John Rettig was best known...

Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) Acrobats: Plate of Drawings by Picasso and Max Jacob, 1913 Original Etching (Paul Fort Workshop) Signed in the plate On Arches vellum, 48 x 38 cm (c. 19 x ...

This luminous painting by Oscar Lycke captures a tranquil sunset scene deep within a Nordic forest. The warm, golden light of the setting sun filters through the dense spruce trees, ...

Art Sz: 15 1/8"H x 10 1/4"W Frame Sz: 16"H x 11"W Godfrey Herbert Brennan (1875-1948) was a British artist w/ Arthur Ackermann & Son Gallery label affixed to verso *craquelure co...

After Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918), AUSTRIA “ART CANNOT BE MODERN, ART IS PRIMORDIALLY ETERNAL.” -SCHIELE Defiantly iconoclastic in life and art, Egon Schiele is esteemed for his mas...

Manifeste technique de la sculpture futuriste. Edited in Milan, April 22, 1912, and printed in September of the same year. Written by Umberto Boccioni (Reggio Calabria, 1882– Chievo,...

New York Bouquet Lithograph, 1917 Edition: 93 Signed with the artist's cipher in pencil lower right (see photo) This lithograph is inspired by Hassam's oil painting of the same title...

This charming early twentieth century Post Impressionist portrait oil painting is by British Jewish female artist Amy Julia Drucker. Of German descent, Drucker was born in England i...

Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918), AUSTRIA “ART CANNOT BE MODERN, ART IS PRIMORDIALLY ETERNAL.” -SCHIELE Defiantly iconoclastic in life and art, Egon Schiele is esteemed for his masterful...

Reclining Nude on Bed Lithograph, c. 1910 Signed in pencil lower right and in the plate, lower right Image size: 7-1/4 x 13" Sheet size: 12 1/2 x 19 inches Condition: very good Some aging to the tan paper Provenance: Estate of the Artist Borghi & Company, New York Rudolph Bauer 1889-1953 Rudolf Bauer was born in Lindenwald near Bromberg, Silesia, in 1889 but his family moved only a few years later to Berlin. In 1905 Bauer began his studies at the Berlin Academy of Art but left the Academy only a few months later to educate himself. The upshot was paintings, caricatures and comical drawings which were published in 'Berliner Tageblatt', 'Ulk' and 'Le Figaro'. From 1912 Bauer contributed to the magazine and Gallery 'Der Sturm' founded by Herwarth Walden and pivotal to German Expressionism and the international avant-garde. In 1915 Rudolf Bauer participated for the first time in a group show at Walden's gallery. There he met Hilla von Rebay, with whom he began a relationship of many years that was crucial to Bauer's later work. By 1922 Bauer had shown work at about eight exhibitions mounted by 'Der Sturm'. From 1918 he also taught at the 'Der Sturm' art school, where Georg Muche was the director. After the war ended, Bauer was a founding member of the 'November Group' although he did not collaborate closely with the group. In 1919 Bauer joined forces with the painter and architect Otto Nebel and with Hilla von Rebay to found the artists' association 'Die Krater'. Impressionist at the outset, Bauer's early work reveals Cubist and Expressionist influences. By 1915/16 Bauer had switched to an abstract pictorial idiom, which is markedly influenced by Kandinsky. In the early 1920s Bauer was also preoccupied with Russian Constructivism as well as the Dutch de Stijl group. Bauer's decided preference for non-representational painting culminated in 1929 with the foundation of a private museum, 'Das Geistreich', which he directed as a salon for abstract art. Political developments in Germany forced Bauer to sell some of his work in America from 1932. His agent in America was Hilla von Rebay, who was by now director of the Guggenheim Collection. In 1936 she organized a touring exhibition of non-representational European art that included sixty Rudolf Bauer oil...

Initialed lower right 'A.H.'; signed verso, "Alfred Helberger", inscribed "Gertrúd" and dated 1914. Bearing the original 1962 exhibition label from the Senator fur Folksbildung, Ber...

Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) Acrobats: Head of a Woman, 1913 Original etching (Paul Fort Workshop) Unsigned On Arches vellum, 48 x 38 cm (c. 19 x 15 in) REFERENCE: - Bloch Catalogue R...

Signed and titled oil on canvas riverscape by sought after French impressionist painter Pierre Eugene Montezin. The work depicts a view of a river in autumn. The trees that line the ...

Beautiful impasto, oil on canvas. Contemporary custom frame. Unsigned, but very well executed painting.

'The Sacramento River, Rio Vista', California, Bohemian Club, White House, SFSD Signed lower left, 'J. E. Stuart' for James Everett Stuart (American, 1852-1941) ), dated 'Jan. 31, 19...