Gauguin

1926 · réf. 000724 — Scarce first edition of Gauguin's complete diary manuscript. Description: Publisher's cloth binding title blocked in red to upper cover and spine. Quarto: 31 × 25 cm; pp. 204. Tipped in label of the Marées-Gesellschaft Hylas motif. Numerous mostly tipped in illustrations. Printed on specially made untrimmed handmade paper that imitates the feel of the original manuscript. Limited to 320 copies of which this is no. 60. Condition: Despite its age a very well-preserved copy with no significant signs of wear. Notes: The editor Julius Meier-Graefe - one of the most influential art critics of his time - had already outlined Gauguin's significance for the development of European art in his "Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst" 1904. He saw 'Noa Noa' not just as a simple notebook but as an independent Gesamtkunstwerk consisting of a network of text and images which he believed should be made accessible to the public. As the printing processes available at the time did not allow for colour-accurate reproductions the complex and expensive collotype process was used to reproduce the original manuscript now in the Louvre. Collotype printing is still considered the highest quality process today as it reproduces colour nuances brush structure and paper texture much more faithfully than conventional printing processes. To give the edition an authentic resemblance to the original handmade paper specially produced for this purpose was also used for printing. Meier-Graefe personally supervised every step of the printing process to ensure that the colours of the original watercolours had the 'Blindheit' blindness und 'Gleißkraft' brilliance that Gauguin had described in his letters Meier-Graefe 1926. However 'Noa Noa' represents not only the pursuit of perfection but also the yearning for authenticity in an increasingly technological world. Marées-Gesellschaft/R. Piper hardcover