Images and verse on an Anacreontic theme

Anacreontische Bilder und Dichtungen von W. Tischbein: An illustrated album of Anacreontic prose

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Images and verse on an Anacreontic theme
Anacreontische Bilder und Dichtungen von W. Tischbein: An illustrated album of Anacreontic prose
inscribed with the title and dated 1820 on a label attached to the cover, and inscribed 'Genius Lyra' on the title page, the album with eleven leaves, one inserted passage of text and ten attached images:

1. Genius Lyre: A lyre formed from the head of a bearded genius, the arms formed from swan's heads and the Three Graces as strings
2. Liebe zu Geschäften (The Love of Commerce): A putto refills a bearded scholar's inkpot
3. Mit Tigerreitz und Kraft: Tiger-lily, a tiger leaps from the open flower of a pink lily (inscribed and dated 'Ascheburg der 3 juli 1814')
4. Das Feine, Zarte (The delicate and tender things): Entwined vine tendrils with three hovering dragonflies
5. Die fünf Sinne (The Five Senses): Five putti eating fruit, watching a butterfly, embracing a girl, smelling a rose and holding a flute
6. Kriegsruhm und häusliches Glück (The Glory of War and the Happiness of Homelife): A pair of doves with young in a nest among papyrus scrolls, the burning ruins of a classical city beyond
7. Das Taubenest auf Hector's Grabmaal (The dove nest on Hector's tomb): A pair of doves by a nest with two eggs
8. Old Age: A branch of Oleander entwined with vine tendrils
9. Cytheras Tauben (Cythera's doves): A congregation of multicoloured doves in a dovecote
10. Erinnerung an ferne und aus dem Leben geschiedene Freunde (Memories of friend far away and long gone): A pair of swans, their necks entwined, by bullrushes on the edge of a lake
black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolor heightened with gold leaf (1) and white (2), in contemporary mounts (except 1), 6 and 8 over etched outlines
The album 14¼ x 11½ in. (360 x 290 mm.); the drawings approximately 9½ x 7½ in. (241 x 191 mm.); and A drawing preparatory to number 9 (11)

Lot Essay

Tischbein first mentions his projected Anakreontische Dichtungen in a letter dated 26 December 1807, but it was not until 10 February 1817 that the sequence of images and text had sufficiently formed in his mind, such that he was able to send draft of the work to Goethe, the proposed dedicatee (W. von Oettingen, Goethe und Tischbein, Weimar, 1910, under no. 19). That illustrated draft remains at Weimar, and appears to carry almost the same nine compositions, albeit with varied text, as the present album (M. Oppel, 1991, nos. 52-57).
(5) A drawing in black chalk for the five senses is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (Kunstwanderer, May 1925, plate 4).

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