Oskar Kokoschka *

(Pöchlarn 1886–1980 Villeneuve)
“Die träumenden Knaben”, 1908, the complete book comprising 8 lithographs in colours on smooth illustration paper, each lithograph initialled OK on the stone, sheet size 23.9 x 29.2 cm, book size 24.3 x 29.8 cm, printed by Berger and Chwala/Vienna and published by Wiener Werkstätte/Vienna, in original linen cover but without golden threads or golden and green paint, the cover vignette in the rare orange printed version, Wingler/Welz 22 – 29

Provenance:
formerly Collection of Ada Hondius-Crone (1893–1996)

Literature:
Agnes Husslein-Arco/Alfred Weidinger, Oskar Kokoschka, Träumender Knabe – Enfant terrible, exhibition catalogue Belvedere/Vienna 2008, pp. 74–107
Werner J. Schweiger, Der junge Kokoschka, Leben und Werk, 1904–1914, Vienna/Munich 1983, pp. 47–62
Werner J. Schweiger, Wiener Werkstätte, Kunst und Handwerk 1903–1932, Vienna 1982, pp. 88–90

The lithographs were printed in an edition of 500 examples in spring 1908 and published by the Wiener Werkstätte end of June 1908. According to Wingler/Welz the first examples sold by Wiener Werkstätte were bound in linen cover which was worked through with golden threads. Alfred Weidinger states that only few examples showed golden threads, but most of the examples were powdered with gold dust instead. Only few copies were sold and most of the edition remained unbound.

In 1917, the publisher Kurt Wolff bought 275 examples and re-issued them with a simpler linen cover. In contrast to the examples from the Wiener Werkstätte, these 275 examples are numbered on a glued in edition label.

Our present example shows neither golden threads nor traces of gold dust and there is no justification lable. Instead, it shows the cover vignette in the rare orange version, and the binding thread is not a simple one but a narrow band with a black and white square pattern. This version seems to be rare. We could find another similar example in the German Expressionist Collection at Leicester Museum & Art Galleries