Hugo Graetz’s Guestbook with Original Artworks by Members of the Novembergruppe.
Germany - Israel: 1920–1921; 1955–1965. The guestbook contains 17 full-page artworks (paintings and drawings in ink, crayon, and pencil), many signed and dated 1920–1921 in Berlin, some with short dedications. Additionally, there are 12 pages of handwritten greetings dated 1955&n. Original half-cloth binding with marbled paper panels and ornamented printed endpapers. Pages are handmade Zanders paper. . (38) leaves, including 17 with full-page artworks (graphics and paintings) and 12 pages of handwritten greetings. Page size: 22 × 28 cm. Binding slightly rubbed, corners bumped, some pages loose. Rear endpaper restored at the joint. Inside clean. Overall in very good condition.
Illustrated guestbook of Hugo Graetz, art dealer and managing director of the Novembergruppe, a collective of German Expressionist artists.
This guestbook belonged to Hugo Graetz, an art dealer and the managing director of the Novembergruppe, a prominent collective of German Expressionist artists. The volume includes:
Two drawings by Friedrich Feigl (1884–1965), Czech Expressionist painter.
An ink drawing by Jakob Steinhardt (1887–1968), a German-born Israeli painter, member of the Berlin Secession, founder of the Pathetiker Group, and later associated with the Bezalel school group.
Three images by Willy Robert Huth (1890–1977), a founding member of the “Jung-Erfurt” artist group, and two collaborative works with Martel Schwichtenberg (1896–1945), who also contributed an individual pencil drawing. Schwichtenberg was a member of the Deutschen Werkbund and the Novembergruppe.
A portrait of Hugo Graetz playing the cello by Wilhelm Schmid (1892–1971), a founding member of the Novembergruppe.
A gouache by Otto Beyer (1885–1962), member of the Berlin Secession.
A signed crayon drawing and an unsigned painting by Franz Winninger (1893–1960).
Four works by unidentified artists.
The greetings, written during the Graetz family’s later years in Israel, provide a personal and historical complement to the artworks.
The Novembergruppe was founded in 1918 by Max Pechstein and César Klein to promote Expressionist art and its connection to social and cultural transformation. Hugo Graetz became its managing director in 1919, a position he held until Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. After emigrating to Palestine with his wife Trude, Graetz left the art business, settling in Safed and working as a meteorologist and weatherman on Mount Canaan, where he lived for the rest of his life.
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Price: €45,000.00