Meisterwerke of German Art by Carl Thonet Jutsum, Vol. I, George Barrie, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 1883, 144pp, leather, 13 x 19”, fo

Fair condition.  Wear to front and rear boards as well as cracking.  Joints are cracked.  Tips are bumped and edges are scuffed.  Spine shows cracking and chipping, but is still legible.  Fore edges in gilt.  Patterned pastedowns and flyleafs.  Title page in black and red ink: red is still crisp.  Frontispiece opposite title page.  Provenance on copyright page (Fred M. Farwell, Yale).  Toning, age-staining, and finger-staining throughout textblock.  Illustrations throughout.  Please see photos.

The reproduction of art pictured in compendia of geographically specific art, such as the one in this listing, reinforced cultural biases about what makes a work great.  The author lauds the “realistic” nature of German art as a Germanic trait visually expressed.  A world of hurt proceeded from this kind of bias, but also worlds of good.  Through copyists’ engravings, common folk visited the great works without travel, impossible for centuries.  Other artists saw what other artists did in other “schools”.  Art so copied enjoyed a public forum for discussion and education.

Books like Meisterwerke used a team of etchers, who traveled to museums and private collections to copy works.  These copyists became “star-makers” through their expert engraving skills.  Artists included in such a book came with established fame.