GOGOL, Nikolai Vasilievich; MASYUTIN, Vasily Nikolayevich (illustrator)

Das Bildnis: Eine Novelle [The Portrait]

Item #1653

German translation. Illustrated with original drawings by Wassili Masjutin (W. Masiutin). Stuttgart: Verlag Julius Hoffmann, 1920. 95, [1] pp., frontispiece portrait of Gogol, decorated title, in-text headpieces, historiated initials, and full-page black-and-white plates by Masyutin. Original publisher's red-and-black patterned paper-covered boards with paste-down paper title label, black cloth spine. Circular ownership stamp (Ex-Libris Fritz Carnap) featuring a heraldic coat of arms to the lower margin of the half-title page.

A striking early interwar Expressionist edition of Nikolai Gogol's gothic novella The Portrait (Das Bildnis), featuring powerful graphic illustrations by the prominent Russian Symbolist and Expressionist artist Vasily Nikolayevich Masyutin (1884–1955). Created shortly after Masyutin's emigration from revolutionary Russia, the illustration cycle includes a portrait frontispiece of Gogol, a decorated title frame, atmospheric headpieces, initial letters, and dramatic full-page compositions. Masyutin's sharp, angular linework, distorted perspectives, and intense chiaroscuro mirror the psychological horror, artistic madness, and supernatural dread of Gogol's classic tale regarding a cursed portrait that destroys a young painter's soul.

Price: $200.00