About this Item
A unique and charming example of Hesse's unification of art and poetry, comprising his manuscript title page illustrated with an ink floral wreath and three pages of typescript with original watercolours by him. Hesse produced such bildermanuskripte ("picture manuscripts") from around 1918 onwards, gifting them to friends or selling them himself. "Relatively few of these paintings have been reproduced" (Mileck, p. 68). The three poems are "Papierlaternen im nächtlichen Garten" (published in 1929, better known under the title "Lampions in der Sommernacht"); "Bei der Nachricht vom Tod eines Freundes" (1930); and "Verfrühter Herbst" (1949). These typescript versions each show occasional textual variations from that published in the Gesammelte Schriften (1958), including the title change of the first poem. In "Verfrühter Herbst", the less assured reading "Wir fühlen" ("We feel") seen here is a variant of the more certain "Wir wissen" ("We know"): "Wir fühlen: eines von den nächsten Wettern / Bricht unserm müden Sommer das Genick" ("We feel: one of the next storms / Breaks the neck of our tired summer"). The watercolour illustrating "Verfrühter Herbst" possibly shows Lake Lugano in the Ticino canton of Switzerland, where Hesse lived for most of his life after the Second World War. The other watercolours depict a garden light show and a decoratively bordered flower. For Hesse, nature "was a poignant reminder of man's mortality, and her authenticity exemplified Hesse's conception of self-will (Eigensinn) and his associated ideal of self-living. Nature was also a lasting creative inspiration, remained a common theme in Hesse's writing and painting, and became his most characteristic backdrop and metaphor" (Mileck, p. 121). Hesse distributed ephemeral collections of his poetry as early as 1892, adding watercolours after taking up painting in the summer of 1916. Hesse "continued to the end of his life to honour a wide circle of friends and acquaintances with his gift collections of autograph and typescript poems" (Mileck, p. 32). The proceeds of those Hesse sold in his later years were often donated to charity. Joseph Mileck, Hermann Hesse: Life and Art, 1980. Four stub-mounted leaves (250 x 181 mm). Green card manuscript title page reading "Drei Gedichte von Hermann Hesse" within Hesse's pen-and-ink floral wreath border, three brown card sheets, each with a typescript poem in three stanzas and watercolour painting by Hesse at head. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in blue morocco, spine lettered in gilt, turn-ins ruled in gilt, dark red endpapers, edges gilt, bulked with blanks. Negligible sunning to extremities of title page, remaining in fine condition.
Seller Inventory # 169554
Contact seller
Report this item
