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

Die Nase [The Nose]

Item #1654

German translation by Alexander Eliasberg. Illustrated with 24 original drawings by Wassili Masjutin (V. Masiutin). The title page erroneously prints the artist's initial as "F. Masjutin," while the cover correctly states "W. Masjutin"). Stuttgart: Verlag Julius Hoffmann, 1923. 65, [3] pp., illustrated throughout with 24 in-text drawings, headpieces, tailpieces, and full-page plates by Masyutin. Original publisher's black-and-gold 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 right margin of the title page.

The scarce companion volume to Vasily Masyutin's (1884–1955) 1920 edition of Das Bildnis (The Portrait), published in Stuttgart by Julius Hoffmann. Translated by Alexander Eliasberg, this volume features 24 original Expressionist drawings by the Russian Symbolist and émigré graphic master, illustrating Nikolai Gogol's surreal 1836 satirical masterpiece The Nose. Masyutin's grotesque, angular linework and sharp chiaroscuro perfectly capture the absurd panic of Major Kovalyov, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich discovering the severed nose baked into his morning loaf of bread, and the nose's haughty ascension through St. Petersburg society dressed as a State Councilor.

Price: $200.00