Lot 3•
OSKAR KOKOSCHKA(1886-1990)Die Träumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Youths)
Amended
23 June 2021, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £10,200 inc. premium
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OSKAR KOKOSCHKA (1886-1990)
Die Träumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Youths) (Wingler & Welz 22-29)
The volume comprising ten lithographs (eight in colours), 1908, on wove paper, signed, dated 1967 and dedicated to Greta in pencil on the front free endpaper, numbered 183 in ink on the justification label, from the second edition of 275 copies, published in 1917 by Kurt Wolff, Leipzig, Germany, the full sheets, with pale time staining, the colours fresh and vibrant, in good overall condition, bound (as issued), with title page, text in German, within the original hessian-covered boards with lithograph in black on the front cover and black slipcase
Sheets 240 x 290mm. (9 1/2 x 11 3/8in.); Volume 243 x 298mm. (9 1/2 x 11 3/4in.)
The volume comprising ten lithographs (eight in colours), 1908, on wove paper, signed, dated 1967 and dedicated to Greta in pencil on the front free endpaper, numbered 183 in ink on the justification label, from the second edition of 275 copies, published in 1917 by Kurt Wolff, Leipzig, Germany, the full sheets, with pale time staining, the colours fresh and vibrant, in good overall condition, bound (as issued), with title page, text in German, within the original hessian-covered boards with lithograph in black on the front cover and black slipcase
Sheets 240 x 290mm. (9 1/2 x 11 3/8in.); Volume 243 x 298mm. (9 1/2 x 11 3/4in.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Gifted by the artist to Margaret Fisher.
Thence by descent to the current owner.
Kokoschka was a major exponent of the Expressionist movement in Austria and was one of the great colourists of the twentieth century. Die Träumenden Knaben was his first graphic work and marks an important moment early in his career, not just as a landmark illustrated artist's book, but also representing a period of transition between the traditional Viennese ornamental style and the more emotionally charged and unconventional Expressionist style, employing intense colours and distorted figures. The work combines several of the artists' influences; medieval art where several scenes are shown within one image, folk art with its bold, flat colours, Japanese art in the use of black outlines and the intricate highly decorative imagery of Secessionist Art.
The work was commissioned by Fritz Wärndorfer, the Director of the Wiener Werkstätte design cooperative, for the Kunstschau arts and handicrafts exhibition in Vienna 1908, organized by Kokoschka's friend and mentor Gustav Klimt, to whom the work is dedicated.
The commission had been intended as a children's fairy-tale. However, inspired by his unrequited love for Lilith, a fellow student, Kokoschka took the liberty of producing rather more adult content to accompany his poem about a young boy's dream, in which youths travel through various exotic landscapes. The poem and images reference the awakening of adolescent sexuality which was regarded as inappropriate and very few of the 500 copies were sold.
In 1917 the Wiener Werkstätte publisher, Kurt Wolff, recognizing the importance of the work in the context of the Expressionist movement and seeing that Kokoschka's reputation was in the ascendant, bought the remaining 275 copies of the book and re-issued it as a bound volume.
The words and images express powerful personal emotions and Kokoschka later referred to the book as "my first love letter". This passion for his subject, together with his dramatic use of colour and composition, mean that this is considered to be one of the most important and beautiful artist's books of the twentieth century.
This copy has a handwritten dedication to Margaret Fisher (known as Greta), who worked for her aunt, Lea Bondi-Jaray, one of the foremost dealers in Expressionist Art, first at the Galerie Würthle in pre-war Vienna and later in London, having fled the Nazi occupation in 1939.
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