7588

Art Nouveau - Kirchner Postcards-1 1899-07 (10) [188154]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Postcards Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Art Nouveau - Kirchner Postcards-1 1899-07 (10) [188154]
SOLD
225.00USDto j*****d+ buyer's premium (56.25)
This item SOLD at 2024 Nov 27 @ 14:56UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
FINAL AUCTION RECORD The Auctioneer’s podium notes serve as the final, legally binding record of the auction results, superseding any electronic bidding records. See Terms and Conditions
A collection of 10 French postcards featuring Art Nouveau illustrations of Raphael Kirchner, c1899-1907. 3 are postmarked 1899 with penned writing on verso. The following have Kirchner's printed signature: Series Couples Between Red Borders; Series Erika (2); Series Portraits of Girls with Grey Border. 6 others are unsigned: 4 with "Nurnberg: Theo. Stroefer's Kunstverlag. - Empire Postkarte. Nr. 5544 (also 5523, 5530, 5542)." at bottom; "1907 Happy New Year!, girl holding pig; and girl with stars in green block shape.

KIRCHNER BIO
Austrian artist Raphael Kirchner was greatly influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and is often compared to Alphonse Mucha. Born in Vienna in 1875, Kirchner initially attended the Conservatoire in Vienna, because his father wanted him to study music. But Kirchner, whose interest lied in his artwork, eventually attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, from 1890 to 1894. He received critical acclaim for his first commercial work, and in 1897 his first set of postcards, Wiener Typen, was published. By age 25, Kirchner was already famous as a postcard illustrator throughout Europe. Later, 40,000 postcards of his orientalist "Geisha" series were sold.
Primarily a portrait painter and illustrator, Kirchner is best known for Art Nouveau and early pin-up work, especially in postcard format. His work served as early inspiration to Peruvian painter Alberto Vargas, who worked in the film and men's magazine industries in the United States. His paintings of "slim, alluring women" were very popular and introduced to the British during World War I. Called "Kirchner Girls," they were hung on the walls of dug-outs, "providing a welcome relief to the horrors of trench life."
Kirchner moved to Paris where he produced illustrations for such magazines as La Vie Parisienne. He also created illustrations for books and posters, and worked in ceramics. Tragically, Kirchner died during surgery for appendicitis in 1917, at the age of 42.

ART NOUVEAU
In the 19th century Art Nouveau became associated with luxury. Through wide-spread advertising, the movement flourished throughout Europe and the United States between 1890 and 1910.
Major influencers in the Art Nouveau movement included Hamburg-born businessman Siegfried Bing (1838-1905). Bing opened a gallery in Paris called L’Art Nouveau in December 1895. In fact, Bing helped coin the term "Art Nouveau" because of his shop's name, along with the periodical L’Art Moderne which used the term to describe the work of the artist group Les Ving. In addition, Bing was influential in the popularization of both Japanese art and Art Nouveau. In the second half of the 19th century, after Japanese ports had resumed trade with the West in 1853, the emergence of what became termed "Japonism" had played an important role in the Art Nouveau movement. Artwork was rendered in the Japanese wood-block style, often using radial designs. Nature was a desirable subject , with dragonflies and cranes favored by both Art Nouveau and Japanese artists.
Art Nouveau was also influenced by experiments with expressive line by European painters Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others including the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, and the Aestheticism of the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.
In London, a retailer was responsible for creating a well-known name in the Art Nouveau world: "stile Liberty." In 1875, Arthur Lasenby Liberty founded the department store Liberty & Co., which became one of the most successful and influential retailers of products in the Art Nouveau style.
Other important showcases for Art Nouveau were trade exhibitions, especially world trade fairs. The highpoint of Art Nouveau was the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. It also promoted France as a major center of the movement. Millions of visitors and thousands of exhibitors attended the fair.
(Information: www.europeana.eu and Brittanica.com) [ 1899-1907