Photographien nach den Originalen des Meisters
Berlin: Photographische Gesellschaft. First edition. Hardcover. Oblong Folio (33 x 41"). (1) 15 plates (31 x 38.5"). Original red cloth portfolio with intricate decorative ruling and design in gilt and black on front cover, blind-stamped on back. Decorative endpapers and flaps.
Wilhelm Amberg (1822–1899) is known as a genre painter of the Berlin Painter School (Berliner Malerschule). Amberg studied at the Berlin Academy under W. Herbig and K. Begas from 1839 to 1842 and in Paris as a student of Léon Cogniet until 1845, followed by an extended stay in Italy, mostly in Rome and Venice with short stops in Naples and Perugia. After his return to Berlin he became a member of the Berlin Academy in 1869 and joined the Senate of the Academy in 1886. His motifs ranged from mythological themes and portraits in the early years to humorous art and later, in his best paintings, featuring Rococo themes incorporating landscapes into his paintings.
The Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin at the Dönhofplatz was an art publisher founded in 1862. Recognized for its excellent photographic reproductions of German paintings in an effort to refine the taste of the larger audience it produced a number of albums and catalogs and offered the photographic reproductions of paintings in variant formats to the public. Among the artists licensed by the company were Karl Becker, Carl Breitbach, Heinrich von Angeli, Friedrich Kaulbach, Gustav Richter, Carl Steffeck, A. v. Werner, Wilhelm Amberg and many others. A similar association had been established in 1861 in Vienna modeled after the establishments founded in London in 1852/53 and Paris in 1855. Next to the attempt to popularize photography in general the purpose of these associations was to improve the technical achievements of photography as well as the development of a library specialized in photography. The members of the associations contributed essential services to research and development of artistic and scientific photography.
The Wilhelm Amberg album contains fifteen albumen reproductions (app. 6 x 8.5"), mounted to heavy card stock with printed titles documenting the following Amberg paintings:
1. Beim Forsthause
2. Bergauf
3. Bergab
4. Der Dorftischler
5. Des Pfarrers Köchin
6. En Passant
7. Flüchtige Gunst
8. Ganz vertieft
9. Im Herbst
10. In trüben Gedanken
11. Hero
12. Sappho
13. Rechtfertigung
14. Im Sommer
15. Was die Schickung schickt, ertrage
Text in German. Some wear along edges of portfolio with light fraying a head and tail of spine as well as corners. Minor staining of covers with back cover lightly rubbed. Card stock plates with some waving along edges not affecting albumen prints. Portfolio and interior in overall very good condition. vg. Item #43402
Price: $2,500.00