Album of contemporary Polish and foreign painters - Leipzig-Vienna [ca 1885] Printed by Franciszek Bonda [ Siemiradzki, Brandt, Matejko].

Album of contemporary Polish and foreign painters - Leipzig-Vienna [ca 1885].

Printed by Franciszek Bonda in Vienna.

Dimensions 41x30 cm. Publisher's binding; linen, decorated with gilt. Contemporary spine made in the style of the covers. The edges of the pages gilded. Slight soiling and rubbing of the cover. Soiling of paper. Block consistent, re-stitched. Contemporary coverstitching.

A beautiful very rare album. Noted one piece in the Jagiellonian Library by Estreicher (E. XIX 1, 75) and one piece in the collection of the National Library according to the KaRo catalog.

The front cover depicts the interior of a 19th century painter's studio. The gilded title is placed on an easel, and the publisher's address on the face of the portfolio with drawings at the bottom of the cover. All embossed and stained. The name of the author of the cover design - Austrian draughtsman and graphic artist Hugo Stroehl ( 1851 -1919) embossed on the edge of the painting palette placed under the easel. The binding was done by the bookbinding workshop of F. Gool in Vienna.

The presented album contains 83 ( out of 93) one- and two-page woodcut and tintype reproductions of paintings by painters of the time. The titlepage of the work is decorated with an Art Nouveau composition, and its final section presents a description of the included works and biographies of their creators. Among the Polish artists included are: Henryk Siemiradzki, Józef Brandt and Jan Matejko.

Rare !