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In the early years of the twentieth century, many German artists were busy constructing the vocabulary of Expressionism. But some remained faithful to the Symbolist/Art Nouveau aesthetic of the end of the previous century, known as Jugendstil. I think the etching in this post, published in 1906 by the Leipzig art revue Zeitschrift f�r Bildende Kunst, is one of the masterpieces of late Jugendstil. It's one of the most perfect summations of Jugendstil I have seen - intricate, brooding, romantic, with a magical transformation between human and natural forms. Please click on the image to get a larger version with more detail. C. G�tz D�hler, Sehnsucht (Longing) Etching with aquatint, 1906 What is perhaps most surprising about this work is that the artist who created it, G�tz Dohler, remains almost completely unknown. I have managed to discover a first initial, C., and a year of birth, 1867, and that's it. He's not listed in B�n�zit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessin

Otto Eckmann was one of the most important figures in the Judgendstil (German Art Nouveau) art movement. Born in Hamburg in 1865, Otto Eckmann studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg, and then in Nuremberg, before entering the Munich Academy of Fine Art in 1885. In the end it was to be the arts and crafts element of his training that predominated. After initial success as a painter in the Symbolist style, in 1894 Otto Eckmann renounced oil painting and auctioned off his canvases. From this point he concentrated on graphics (particularly woodcuts) and on the design of tapestries, stained glass, furniture, fabrics, and ceramics. Otto Eckmann was also a pioneering typographer and type designer, and his Jugendstil typefaces Eckmann and Fette Eckmann are still in use today. Eckmann's type design was influenced by Japanese script, just as his woodcuts show the strong influence of Japanese art. Otto Eckmann was a major contributor to the two most important Art Nouveau revues publishe

This wonderful scene of a self-absorbed tennis player trailed by three adoring acolytes is one of 19 etchings made between 1894 and 1896 by Eugen Kirchner,  a remarkable artist who has had the misfortune of being overshadowed by a younger man with a similar name, the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Die Tennisspieler is usually dated to 1896, but it was probably made the previous year, as the 1895 etching Dame mit Spazierstock (also known as Dame im Zimmer), incorporates the tennis player composition, showing it as a painted panel above a door. Eugen Kirchner, Die Tennisspieler (The Tennis Player) Etching with aquatint, 1894-1896 Eugen Kirchner was born in Halle in 1865. A founder member of the Vienna Secession, Eugen Kirchner also exhibited with the Berlin Secession, and contributed to both Pan and Die Graphischen Kunste. He had a major exhibition of drawings, watercolours and etchings in Dresden in 1904. As an etcher, he is particularly noted for his mastery of aquatint, as in Di

The bookplate or ex libris has put bread and butter on many an artist�s table, and over the course of time has developed into a flourishing art form all of its own. I don�t pretend to know very much about the history and development of ex libris, but seem to have acquired some anyway. I think this little group of Austrian, Czech and German bookplates of the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) period are particularly charming. They come from the Vienna art revue Die Graphischen K�nste , from the years 1911, 1912, and 1914. Maximilian Liebenwein (Austrian, 1869-1926) Ex libris Josef Kundrat Lithograph, 1910 Maximilian Liebenwein Ex libris Karl Stark Lithograph, 1910 Maximilian Liebenwein Ex libris der Verbindung von Wiener Kunstakademikern �Athenaia� Lithograph, 1910 Alfred Cossmann (Austrian, 1870-1951) Ex libris Arthur Graf Etching, c.1912 Alfred Cossman Ex libris Franz J. Kaiser Etching. c.1912 Alois Kolb (Austrian, 1875-1942) Ex libris Gertrud Kolb Etching, c.1914 Rudolf Junk (Austrian, 188