Artist: Joseph Rudolf Witzel German (1867-1924)
Title: Deutsche Kanst und Dekoration
Plate: PL. 164
Original lithograph from "Les Maitres de L'Affiche" series.
Printed by Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, 1899.
Presented in 16 x 20 in. acid free, archival museum mat, with framing labels. Ready to frame. Shipped boxed flat.
Certificate of Authenticity.
Maitre Sheet Size: approx 11 3/8 in x 15 3/4 in 29 cm x 40 cm
Price: $200.00
Full size sold for US $ 3840 Swann Auctions N.Y. Dec. 2008
"Witzel was an active and successful illustrator, caricaturist, painter, as well as posterist. He contributed to the magazine 'Jugend' for whom he also produced a poster, and was actively involved with the monthly 'Deutsche-Kunst und Dekoration (German Art and Decoration) magazine, a leading exponent of German Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) for which he created this design. This fine, seriously drawn design is an inspirational ode to the new generation of decorative artists" (Rennert, PAI-XX, 498)
Kunst und Decoration was a German illustrated monthly magazine dedicated to the arts, first published in 1898. Witzel was a Munich-based caricaturist, illustrator, painter and occasional poster artist. This allegorical image is very Germanic in its inspiration, foregoing the beautiful muse that would have figured in a French poster. Instead a naked young man's hand is guided by a rather demurely clad muse. She is helping him delineate curvy, Jugendstil lines, which stand out against the dark background. It is a powerful and effective image, and one of the few German posters selected for publication in les Maitres de l'Affiche. DFP-III 3453, Rademacher p. 38, Gallo p. 142-43, Wember 793. (Swann)