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Moderne Kunst in Meister-Holzschnitten Band IV (page 1/3)

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Pictures from Moderne Kunst in Meister-Holzschnitten (Modern Art in Master Woodcuts), Berlin, c. 1898.

I think I bought this enormous book from Antikvariát Dlážděná in Prague. It’s an “elephant folio” with pages measuring 410×290mm (roughly 11½×16 inches), including many engravings that fill the page or even double-page spreads and fold-outs.

Despite the title, the images are probably engraved on metal, because wood this size was hard to work with.

The date 1898 for this book is a guess; it could be a couple of years on either side.

Title: Moderne Kunst in Meister-Holzschnitten Band IV

Editor: Bong, Richard

Published by: Richard Bong

City: Berlin

Date: 1898

Total items: 13

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.

Some sample images

[picture: Spring Song, Frühlingslied]

Spring Song, Frühlingslied

A young man, rather scantily clad in an animal skin draped over one shoulder and over his crotch, plays the flute to a young woman lying on animal skins or fabric on the grass and gazing up at the boy. Behind the youth, a tree is in flower.

This engraving by F. Feldweg is based on a painting by the German artist Harry Jochmus (1855 – 1915). There appear to be several versions of the oil painting, with the boy being naked or partly clothed, and with water in the background or not, and the grazing animals in the distant in different positions.

Small print beneath the engraving says, Mit genehmigung der photographischen gesellschaft in Berlin, which is, With permission of the Photographic Society in Berlin, suggesting that the engraving was made from a photograph of the original artowrk.

In digitising the piece, i have assumed that the colours have faded somewhat and tried to correct for it; the sea in [more...] [$]

[picture: Cherub playing a grand piano]

Cherub playing a grand piano

Strictly speaking i think he’s a putto, as cherubs have wings and putti are just plump little naked children, usually boys, although putti are sometimes depicted with wings. In this picture a red-haired putto or cherub is sitting on the piano stool, [...] [more...] [$]

[picture: Choirboy singing from balcony pulpit]

Choirboy singing from balcony pulpit

A beautiful boy chorister, or possibly a young lady by the costume and the long pointy fingers, is singing in a wooden pulpit or balcony high in the top-left corner of a page of sheet music (not shown). He or she has a red necklace and possibly a thurible. There are leaves that could be poinsetta but probably aren’t, a yellow songbird in a [more...] [$]

[picture: Auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt (At Christmasfest)]

Auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt (At Christmasfest)

At the Christmas Festival Market.

The boy in the engraving sits holding a box, perhaps containing boxes of matches or small cakes; a candle (perhaps) is [more...] [$]

[picture: Christmas Mass]

Christmas Mass

Choirboys, an orchestra, a conductor who appears to be starting into space, an inuntersested congregation, some of whom are kneeling at at the door. It looks as if perhaps we see a minstrel’s gallery, or a side-chapel, as the main procession and [...] [more...] [$]


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