Joseph Kuhn-Regnier 1929 Color Engraving Sweet Flower Vendor LIMITED Framed COA

  

Of the world's finest artists from. Joseph Kuhn-Régnier (French, 1873 - 1940).

Original color engraving on wove paper. Image Size 3 3/4 x 5 3/8. This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.

Joseph Kuhn-Régnier, born Joseph Louis Wilfrid Kuhn-Regnier was a French illustrator who worked in Paris. His work is recognizable by his characters inspired by Greek and classical art. He contributed full-page colored illustrations and advertisements to society magazines between 1911 and 1934 such as La Vie Parisienne, Fantasio, and Le Sourire. In 1934 he created colored illustrations for four volume collection The Works of Hippocrates, published by Javal & Bourdeaux in Paris. He also created illustrations for the erotic work The Songs of Bilitis in the 1930s.

The Songs of Bilitis is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a pseudotranslation. Though the poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Louÿs himself, they are still considered important literature. The poems are in the manner of Sappho; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient Greece called Bilitis, a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho to whose life Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book.

On publication, the volume deceived even expert scholars. Louÿs claimed the 143 prose poems, excluding 3 epitaphs, were entirely the work of this ancient poet-a place where she poured both her most intimate thoughts and most public actions, from childhood innocence in Pamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years.

Although for the most part The Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems were reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, and Louÿs even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. The poems are a blend of mellow sensuality and polished style in the manner of Parnassianism, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones that Louÿs could never escape. To lend authenticity to the forgery, Louÿs in the index listed some poems as "untranslated"; he even craftily fabricated an entire section of his book called "The Life of Bilitis", crediting a certain fictional archaeologist Herr G. Heim as the discoverer of Bilitis' tomb. And though Louÿs displayed great knowledge of Ancient Greek culture, ranging from children's games in "Tortie Tortue" to application of scents in "Perfumes", the literary fraud was eventually exposed.

This did little, however, to taint their literary value in readers' eyes, and Louÿs' open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance. The Songs of Bilitis are the result of Louÿs and Hérold's shared encounter with Meriem the dancing-girl, and the poems are dedicated to Gide with a special mention to M.

Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity and is Fully Guaranteed to be Certified as Described. Any framing included in a listing is double matted and framed in a solid wood moulding. We can also frame any pieces not listed as such. We are usually half the price of a regular framer.

We guarantee all our listings to be 100% as described.