May 19, 2022 - Sale 2605

Sale 2605 - Lot 4

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000

EPHRAIM MOSES LILIEN (1874-1925)

BERLINER TAGEBLATT. Circa 1899.


55 1/2x36 3/4 inches, 141x93 1/4 cm. C.L. Keller, Berlin.
Condition A-: minor restoration at edges, along vertical and horizontal folds, and seam; slight, unobtrusive time-staining in lower image; repaired pin holes in corners. Two-sheets.

Born in Galicia, Austria, and an art student in Germany, Lilien is considered "the first artist of the Zionist Movement . . . [he was] actively involved over a period of years with the Zionist Movement, and served as representative to the Sixth Zionist Congress. He was one of the founders of the Judischer Verlag, the Jewish publishing company in Berlin whose publications propagated the artistic and literary output of the Jewish Renaissance. He also took part in establishing the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem" (Haim Finkelstein, Lilien and Zionism, http://www.tau.ac.il/arts/projects/PUB/assaph-art/assaph3/articles_assaph3/11finkelstein.pdf). A master of Jugendstil design, Lilien was a book illustrator, etcher and graphic designer. He designed this poster for Rudolf Mosse, the publisher of the newspaper whose initials appear on the crest being held by the two central figures. An active participant in the Jewish artistic scene and Renaissance in Berlin between 1890-1918, Lilien was one of the Modernists celebrated in the exhibition Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918 at the Jewish Museum in New York, 1999. This rare poster is a masterwork of Secession stylization and design. We have only found two other examples at auction in the last 20 years. DFP-III 2017.