(after) Gustav Klimt

Max Eisler Eine Nachlese folio “Portrait of Baroness Bachofen-Echt” collotype

1931

Life is a Struggle (The Golden Knight), no. 10 from the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts With his golden armor meticulously and faithfully rendered after examples found ...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under each of the 50 prints is a gold signet intaglio printed on the cream paper each of which Klimt designed for the publication as unique and relating to its corresponding image; H.O. Miethke, Editor-Publisher; k.k. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, Printer; printed in a limited edition of 300 numbered plus several presentation copies; Vienna, 1908-1914. The idea of collaboration in the arts is anything but new; however it has so often been viewed and assessed as somehow devaluing the intrinsic worth of art. It’s as if it was a dirty secret to be hidden away. More so even than the eroticism explored by Klimt, which divided public opinion, the artistic avant-garde began to boldly flaunt artistic collaboration beginning in the 19th century- which gained steam in the first part of the 20th century- to become a driving vehicle of contemporary artistic creation. Viewed in this context, the folios of collotype prints published by H.O. Miethke in Vienna between 1908-1914 known as Das Werk Gustav Klimts, are important art documents worthy of as much consideration for their bold stand they take on established ways of thinking about artistic collaboration as they are for their breathtakingly striking images. 1908 is indeed a watershed moment in the history of art. To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Kunstschau opened in Vienna in May of that year. It was there that Klimt delivered the inaugural speech. Speaking about the avant-garde group’s unifying philosophy of Gesamtkunstwerk, or the synthesis of the arts, Klimt shared his belief that the ideal means to bring artists and an audience together was via “work on major art projects.” It was at Kunstschau 1908 that Klimt first exhibited his most iconic painting, The Kiss, as well as The Sunflower, Water Snakes I and II and Danae. It was at Kunstschau 1908 that Das Werk Gustav Klimts was first available for purchase. Thanks to Galerie Miethke’s organization, Kunstschau 1908 was possible. Miethke’s pioneering art house had become Klimt’s exclusive art dealer and main promoter of his modernist vision. Paul Bacher and Carl Moll, a founding member with Klimt of the Vienna Secession, who all broke away during the rift in 1905, took stewardship of the gallery following the fallout with the Secession. Das Werk Gustav Klimts is a prime example of Miethke’s masterful and revolutionary approach to marketing art. Miethke’s innovative marketing strategy played to a penchant for exclusivity. The art gallery and publishing house utilized the press and art critics- such as Austria’s preeminent Art Historian, Hugo Haberfield, who became Director of the gallery in 1912- as a means of gaining publicity as well as maintaining effective public relations. Miethke used the grand exposition format to extend the art gallery’s market reach, cultivating their product’s prestige by stroking the egos of current art patrons while simultaneously creating accessibility for newcomers and others avid collectors to share a relative proximity to other wealthy and respected members of the art collecting community. Essentially, their approach paved the way for what is still the predominant means of marketing. Between 1908 and 1914, H.O. Miethke published a total of 5 installments of print folios of Klimt’s painted work, each comprising 10 prints. The series was limited in availability to 300 and purchase was arranged through subscription. Each issue was presented unbound in a gold embossed black paper folder. Included in the folio was a Title Page, a Justification page and a Table of Contents page itemizing each of the 10 printed works with details about their corresponding painted works as well as information about each work’s current owner. These folios were not comprehensive of Klimt’s work; but rather, they feature what he believed were his most important paintings from 1898-1913. Only 2 collotypes in each folio were multicolored. To punctuate the fact that Klimt, himself, was very much an active player in creating these printed works, he created square-shaped signets, unique to each collotype which were intaglio printed in gold ink at the bottom of the cream wove papers to which the chine collie papers were affixed.These signets relate thematically to their corresponding printed images and designate each of those images by their placement in the folio’s Table...

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler Plate #19, Bildnis einer alten Dame; sepia-toned monochrome collotype after the 1917 painting in oil on canvas. GUSTAV KLIMT EINE NACHLESE (GUSTAV KLIMT AN AFTERMATH), a portfolio of 30 collotypes prints, 15 are multi-color and 15 are monochrome, on chine colle paper laid down on heavy cream-wove paper with deckled edges; Max Eisler, Editor-Publisher; Osterreichischer Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), Printer; in a limited edition of 500 numbered examples of which: 200 were printed in German, 150 were printed in French and 150 were printed in English; Vienna, 1931. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s death. It is a fitting time to reflect upon the enduring legacy and deep impact of his art. Recognizing this need for posterity with uncanny foresight, the publication of Gustav Klimt: An Aftermath (Eine Nachlese) provides a rare collection of work after Klimt which has proven to be an indispensable tool for Klimt scholarship as well as a source for pure visual delight. Approximately 25 percent of the original works featured in the Aftermath portfolio have since been lost. Of those 30, six were destroyed by fire on 8 May 1945. On that fateful final day of WWII, the retreating Feldherrnhalle, a tank division of the German Army, set fire to the Schloss Immendorf which was a 16th century castle in Lower Austria used between 1942-1945 to store objects of art. All three of Klimt’s Faculty Paintings: Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence (1900-1907), originally created for the University of Vienna, were on premises at that time. Also among the inventory of Klimt paintings in storage there was art which had been confiscated by the Nazis. One of the most significant confiscated collections was the Lederer collection which featured many works by Gustav Klimt such as Girlfriends II and Garden Path with Chickens...

Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art work) by designing architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries meant to coordinate every detail of an environment. His work transcended the imitative decorative arts of earlier eras and helped to define Modernism for generations to come. Moser achieved a remarkable balance between intellectual structure (often geometric) and hedonistic luxury. Collaborating with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, the artist was an editor and active contributor to Ver Sacrum, (Sacred Spring), the journal of the Viennese Secession that was so prized for its aesthetics and high quality production that it was considered a work of art. The magazine featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style (Youth) along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. It quickly disseminated both the spirit and the style of the Secession. In 1903 Moser and Hoffmann founded and led the Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) a collective of artisans that produced elegant decorative arts items, not as industrial prototypes but for the purpose of sale to the public. The plan, as idealistic then as now, was to elevate the lives of consumers by means of beautiful and useful interior surroundings. Moser’s influence has endured throughout the century. His design sensibility is evident from the mid-century modern furniture of the 1950s and ‘60s to the psychedelic rock posters...

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...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

Original Vintage Poster by the Austrian artist Ferdinand Ludwig Graf, a member of the Hagenbund. This Viennese artist association moved as soon a...

Original hand-colored woodcut from a portfolio of Secessionist fashion illustrations. Signed in the lower right margin by the artist, Reni Schaschl (1895-1979), a talented member of...

Kurzweil, Maximilian. Der Polster, 1903. Color woodcut on japon. Included as an insert in Pan. Unsigned. Framed.11 1/4 x 10 1/4. 1 Ref: Hofstatter, p. 241; Pabst, p. 154. Maximillian Kurzweil was the co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897 and editor and illustrator of the influential Secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum...

Mädchen am Fenster. 1906-08. Color lithograph printed on smooth card stock. Full margins. Tipped into a later presentaion folder, signed by the artist in pencil, on the recto. Published by the Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna, with the printed postcard text on verso. Among Kokoschka's earliest prints were a series of 14 postcards, the current work and the following lot that he produced for the Wiener Werkstätte. Wingler/Welz 4. Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits...

Siccard-Redl, Josef. Fruhling, Ca 1910. Color wood engraving, Signed and titled in pencil by the artist. Little is known of this artist other than he worked in Vienna during the ...

Arthur Paunzen, 'Von der Jugend' (Of Youth) from the suite 'Song of the Earth', etching, aquatint, and drypoint, 1920. Signed and titled in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream, wove Japan paper; the full sheet with margins (2 1/4 to 4 1/4 inches), in good condition. Image size 12 1/4 x 9 1/16 inches; sheet size 19 3/4 x 13 5/8 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK Pauzen’s suite of six etchings 'Das Lied von der Erde' (The Song of the Earth), published in 1920, was inspired by Gustav Mahler...