Peter Fendi. Vierzig Erotische Aquarelle (Forty Erotic Watercolors)
Leipzig: Privately printed, 1910. First edition. Hardcover. 407/600. Small Elephant Folio. [12]pp., incl. portrait. 40 plates. Original three-quarter vellum with gilt decor and lettering over decorative paper-covered boards. Decorative endpapers. Hand-numbered on colophon. Title page printed in brown and black. Includes forty pasted down lithographs plus portrait of the artist. Decorative initial and endpaper.
A set of forty lithographic reproductions of watercolors by Peter Fendi, the Royal Court painter, lesser known to the larger audience due to the fact that most of his paintings were privately held, for the most part in possession of members of the Royal family. Occasionally one or the other intimate image was exhibited, e.g. in the exhibition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the emperor Franz Joseph I. in 1908. The series meticulously reproduced in this publication comes from a distinguished collector, who kept them under wraps for a long time.
Franz Josef I. was known for his affairs, e.g. with Anna Nahowski over a period of 14 years, the actress Katharina Schratt, on suggestion of his spouse Empress Elisabeth (known as Sissi), as well as other liaisons with aristocratic, common women or servants. During his reign as emperor though his personal life remained largely unknown to the general public and was, in effect, contrary to his public image.
Fendi was known as a portrait and genre painter as well as an illustrator, capturing and creating, so to speak, types of Vienna life. The series reproduced here combines all of these skills. In his introduction Karl Merker describes various of the images reproduced in this publication, highlighting noteworthy details in various of the watercolors, including the portrait of Fendi by Josef Danhauser. The colophon of this edition for subscribers explicitly pledges that a new edition of these images will not be published.
Text in German. Binding with light wear along edges and rubbed. Front cover with several medium water stains and some scratching of both decorative paper of covers. Inside covers with light chipping along gutters. Block lightly age-toned, not affecting images. Very good to fine condition. Item #55641
Price: $4,500.00