Ein Todtentanz aus dem Jahr 1848: A Dance of Death for the Year 1848

Very good suite of five (of six) woodcuts from this scarce edition of the Dance of Death.

Five large dramatic anti-socialist engravings accompanied by lettered verses by Robert Reineck, inspired by the revolutionary uprisings suppressed by the military in Germany in 1848.

The five plates are: Death rises from the grave to be greeted by Liberty, Equality and Fraternity; Death holding scales in front of a crowd at a tavern; Death delivers a sword to the people; Death stands on a barricade; and Death as victor riding on horseback over corpses. (Missing plate 2, Death on horseback riding into town).

The woodcuts after Rethel's designs were supervised by Hugo Burkner, executed by Carl Friedrich Robert Berger 1, (Richard Julius Jungtow 2, not present), Oskar Friedrich Schmidt 3, Gustav Richard Steinbrecker 4, Carl August Zsheckel 5 and August Gaber, and printed by F. A. Brockhaus.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it was for his Dance of Death, "executed in a technique founded upon that of Durer, and animated by an imagination akin to the of the elder master, that Rethel is most widely known."

Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) was a German history painter. After studying at the academy in Dusseldorf, he moved to Frankfurt to decorate the walls of the imperial hall. He later worked in Rome, painting altar pieces, before the onset of mental illness caused his return home. He produced some of his most impressive works in this period while hovering between madness and sanity. He died in an asylum in Dusseldorf in 1859.

Some age toning and spotting, especially to Plate 1, but good impressions of the woodcuts.