Munich, Othmar Kern & Co, 1923
Rare portfolio of ballets russes dancers - each plate signed by the artist . Featuring Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Vera Fokina, Adolph Bolm and Michel Fokin in Cleopatra, the Polovitsian Dances, Le Spectre de la Rose, Scheherazade, Carnaval and Les Sylphides.
Although the title of the portfolio is Carneval the subjects are of various Ballets Russes productions. Interestingly, there are no records of this work in any institutions, however the NYPL does have a work by Grunenberg titled Phoenix : 10 Radierungen zum russischen Ballet the captions of which match some of those in this work. The NYPL believe that their copy may be unique and may have been a prototype for a later work, indeed some of the plates do correlate to the compositions in the portfolio Russisches Ballet which was published in 1923 by J. Casper.
What is clear is that this is a scarce collection of 12 plates by an associate of the Ballets Russes, all with hand-colouring. Grunenberg gravitated towards rhythmically moving subjects, especially dancers and managed to capture the tempo of the music and the mood of the characters.
First edition, folio (50 x 33 cm), 12 lithographs, 10 of which are in loose mounts, partly coloured, signed and captioned by the artist in pencil, one with age-toned mark to lower left corner; textured effect paper over boards with brown cloth spine and corners, title and publisher printed in gilt; light markings on spine and corner, an excellent set.
Although the title of the portfolio is Carneval the subjects are of various Ballets Russes productions. Interestingly, there are no records of this work in any institutions, however the NYPL does have a work by Grunenberg titled Phoenix : 10 Radierungen zum russischen Ballet the captions of which match some of those in this work. The NYPL believe that their copy may be unique and may have been a prototype for a later work, indeed some of the plates do correlate to the compositions in the portfolio Russisches Ballet which was published in 1923 by J. Casper.
What is clear is that this is a scarce collection of 12 plates by an associate of the Ballets Russes, all with hand-colouring. Grunenberg gravitated towards rhythmically moving subjects, especially dancers and managed to capture the tempo of the music and the mood of the characters.
First edition, folio (50 x 33 cm), 12 lithographs, 10 of which are in loose mounts, partly coloured, signed and captioned by the artist in pencil, one with age-toned mark to lower left corner; textured effect paper over boards with brown cloth spine and corners, title and publisher printed in gilt; light markings on spine and corner, an excellent set.
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