Brazil’s  Prodigal  Magnificence

Rugendas, Johann Moritz. Malerische Reise in Brasilien (Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil). Paris, Engelmann, (1827-)35. Large folio (sheet size 34.5 x 50.5 cm). 2 ll., 50, 38, 56, 32 pp. With

100   colored   lithographs

after Rugendas. Full-size-facsimile in the original colours enlarged with 8 ll. summary in Portuguese (9 pp.) and index (5 pp.) + imprint. 1986. Orig. h. leather with marbled covers and gilt edges in the orig. natural (light-grey) cloth cassette (Schumacher Inc. Berne).

No. 555/950 copies of the ordinary edition (total edition 1050 copies equipped with the cassette initially only). – Two plates (pt. IV, 15 + 16) with quite weak fold in the wide white right margin, otherwise impeccable.

The  wonderful  suite  of  matchless  impressions

“ (which) came into  Darwin’s  mind again when he (1832) entered the South American jungle … (and)

whose  tropical  wood  had  impressed  Darwin  so  much …

(and) still was on his mind when in the forties and fifties he

quietly  worked  out  the  Theory  of  Evolution  for  himself ”

(Julia Voss in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 1, 2008).

Perfectly reproduced in a special screenless phototype process. – Subdivided in landscapes – portraits and costumes – manners and customs of the Red Indians – life of the Europeans – manners and customs of the Negroes . – Published by Gottfried Engelmann (1788-1839), who had the lithography introduced at Paris in 1816 after having learned that at the inventor Senefelder himself in Munich. – Text in German.

The  wonderful  yield  of  Johann  Mori(t)z  Rugendas’

(Augsburg 1802 – Weilheim 1858) first voyage (1821-1825), that he started together with the Russian Privy Councillor and Prussian consul general in Rio, Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, into the interior of Brazil to capture the peculiarities of the country. Though this connection was of not lasting it was the beginning for his multiple decades-long own voyages through Middle and South America resulting in a plenty of drawings “of highest interest. In the characteristic and natural representation of humans, animals and plants of strange, first tropical countries only few could be placed at his side”. And already the work here

“ … made the artist famous, (its illustrations) showing humans and animals, districts and the luxuriant vegetation of that country in full truth and faithfulness ”

(Nagler).

That it remained his one and only publication gives it its infinite value.

Offer no. 28,642 / EUR  1535. / Export price EUR  1458. (c. US$ 2207.) + shipping

„ Greetings from your Italian friend and Beethoven collector … Please inform me … “

(Sign. L. B., December 10, 2005)