Földvári Books

Early Hungarian Publication on Ruskin, Morris, The Pre-Raphaelists, And The Arts And Crafts Movement

Kriesch, Aladár [Körösföi-Kriesch, Aladár]

Ruskinröl s az angol praerafaelitákról. A Mübarátok Körében tartott négy elöadás. [On Ruskin and The English Pre-Raphaelists. Four Lectures Held In the Circle Of Maecenas’]

[Budapest]: [Mübarátok Köre], 1904 [ie. 1905]. First edition. Edition of only 400 copies. Printed on high quality, handmade paper. Text in Hungarian. The Art Nouveau layout of the cover and the endpapers were designed by Aladár Körösföi-Kriesch. Illustrated with nine black-and-white photographic reproductions, mounted on cardboard plates, separated by tracing paper. In publisher’s green and white half-cloth, with title on spine, ornamented on both panels. Ornamented endpapers. Chapter title pages ornamented with initials and frame printed in red. [2], 150, (2) p., and 9 plates. Spine very slightly worn at the tail and the head. A small white spot on the cver. In near fine condition.

Early Hungarian publication on Ruskin, Morris, the Pre-Raphaelists and the Arts and Crafts movement, written by the Hungarian painter, sculptor and designer, Aladár Körösföi-Kriesch, one of the first artists to introduce Art Nouveau in Hungary.

The book includes the transcripts of four lectures of Aladár Körösföi-Kriesch (1863–1920) that he gave in favour of the Arts and Crafts movement in Budapest in 1904. The lectures’ titles are Ruskin müvészi hitvallása (Ruskin’s Ars Poetica), Morris és reformtörekvései (Morris and his Reformer Endeavors), A praerafaelita kör irodalmi müködése (The Literary Practice of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), A praerafaelita képírók (Pre-Raphaelist Painters). The book is illustrated with reproductions of the works of William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox-Brown, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It also includes Pre-Raphaelite poetry in English and Hungarian from Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris.

Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelists highly influenced the art of Aladár Körösföi-Kriesch. Along with his friend and collaborator, Sándor Nagy, he founded the Gödöllö Artist Colony, which became the cradle of Hungarian Art Nouveau. Three years after the foundation of the artists’ colony, Körösföi Kriesch also established a textile workshop and weaving school in Gödöllö, They shared the interest in the Transylvanian folk art and used it to form the unique Hungarian style in modern art.

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Price: €600.00