Worpswede. Fritz Mackensen, Otto Modersohn, Fritz Overbeck, Hans am Ende, Heinrich Vogeler von Rainer Maria Rilke. Mit 122 Ubbildungen.
Bielefeld und Leipzig: Verlag von Delhagen & Klasing, 1903. First edition of this collection of essays about the impressionist painters who formed the artists community in Worpspede, Germany. Von Mises 25. Presentation copy, inscribed by Rilke on the half-title page to “Maximilian Harden, herzlich, dankbar und voll Ergebenheit, Rainer Maria Rilke. Paris, märz 1903.” According to the historian A. J. P. Taylor, “Harden was certainly the most brilliant political writer during the reign of Wilhelm II.” But he was also erratic, inconsistent and, in Taylor’s words, “essentially critical and destructive.” Rilke’s fond inscription, which translates as “warm, grateful and full of devotion” presumably dates from the period when Harden was a theatre critic. In the upper left corner of the front inside cover there is pasted a small piece of paper, presumably obscuring something that was already there; and, at the bottom of the rear inside cover there is an ink-stamp from the Museum Tel Aviv, with the number 2504 written on it. Front inner hinge pulling and reinforced, covers lightly rubbed at edges, otherwise a very good copy, enclosed in a full red cloth clamshell box with leather label. 4to, illustrated, original two-toned cloth, gilt, t.e.g.
Price: $3,750.00