Les Fenêtres. Dix poèmes de Rainer Maria Rilke illustrés de dix eaux-fortes par Baladine.

RILKE, Rainer Maria.

Published by Paris, Officina Sanctandreana, 1927., 1927

4to, ff.[24], with 10 etched plates by Baladine (see below); title printed in red and black with woodcut Sanctandreana device; some light offsetting but a good copy, uncut in the original printed wrappers, spine renewed, edges of covers marked from an earlier repair.First edition of a series of ten poems in French addressed by Rilke to his lover, the painter Baladine Klossowska, who herself provided the illustrations, numbered 146 of 500 copies on pur fil, of a total edition of 515.Known also as 'Mouky' or simply as Baladine, the Breslau (Wroclaw)-born artist Elisabeth Dorothea Klossowska (née Spiro, 1886 1969) met Rilke in 1919, and became his companion until his death in 1926. Rilke addressed her by the pet name 'Merline' in their correspondence, which was published after his death. Baladine's son, the modernist artist Balthus, was the recipient of Rilke's Letters to a Young Painter. 'The evenings spent with Baladine in quiet talk looking out of windows in Geneva and Bern first inspired Rilke to begin a series of French poems he was to entitle Les Fenêtres [Windows], a collection that grew over the next four years and was published posthumously in 1927 with drawings by Baladine. At this moment, knowing of her growing love of his verse, [he sought] to serenade her in the language closest to her' (Freedman, Life of a poet: Rainer Maria Rilke (1996), p.457). Ritzer E72; Wilpert/Gühring 4 5. Language: French. Seller Inventory # F939

Bibliographic Details

Title: Les Fenêtres. Dix poèmes de Rainer Maria ...
Publisher: Paris, Officina Sanctandreana, 1927.
Publication Date: 1927
Binding: Soft cover
Edition: 1st Edition