RODENBACH (Georges).

Lot 31
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Estimation :
1000 - 2000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 1 800EUR
RODENBACH (Georges).
The Virgins. Les Tombeaux. P., Impr. Chamerot et Renouard pour Bing, 1895, 2 vols. small 4°, moiré paper covers, the first in white, the second in black, each covered with a green paper strip decorated with a composition by Pitcairn-Knowles (cover edges rubbed, missing head and tail of spine, paper strips and very fresh interior). First edition of this diptych commissioned by Samuel Bing to celebrate the opening of his L'Art Nouveau gallery on December 26, 1895. "Les Vierges" is illustrated with 4 out-of-text color lithographs by Joseph Rippl-Ronai and "Les Tombeaux" with 3 black woodcuts by James Pitcairn-Knowles. These two painter friends, one Hungarian, the other Scottish, very much linked to the Nabis group, made these drawings at the request of Samuel Bing even before an author or a text to illustrate was found. Rippl-Ronai confided in a letter: "I am currently working on the edition, or more precisely on the elaboration of a small book - my Scottish friend too [...]. The format, the layout of the drawings and the typography are of extreme importance. My drawings are in color and reproduced by a lithographic process, those of my Scottish friend engraved on wood. His are sad, mine are cheerful; he evokes death, I exalt the joy of living; my little book corresponds to summer, his to winter. Mine is light, youth, the shining sun and the golden beauty of nature, the hesitation of young girls at the threshold of life. It is a small dream".
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