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Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The Astronomer-Poet of Persia Rendered into English Verse by Edward FitzGerald with an Accompaniment of Drawings by Elihu Vedderby Khayyam, Omar1st Edition Thus
Book description: Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1884 First, Limited Edition of 100 copies, of which this is No. 22, signed by Vedder, with ornamental title page & 56 magnificent full-page Illustrations. Printed at the Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA. Brown flat-weave cloth over beveled boards; front cover with gilt lettering, dark brown-stamped ruled borders, symbolist design of vase, vine, swirl & stars, rear cover without decoration; spine with gilt lettering & dark brown-stamped ruled borders & ornaments; signed in gilt & dark brown-stamp on front cover, lower right 'V.'; slate coated endpapers; TEG, others untrimmed. Signed by Vedder on Limitation Page. In the ten months from May 1883 to March 1884, Elihu Vedder (1836-1923) completed a series of 54 drawings in pencil, ink, chalk, & watercolor to accompany this 1884 edition of the Rubaiyat. All of these original drawings, which were proclaimed a masterwork of American art, were included in a special exhibition of "Elihu Vedder's Drawings for the Rubaiyat" at the National Museum of American Art in 1998. The exhibition also included two first edition printings of this Rubaiyat with Vedder's "accompaniments" (he disliked the term illustrations) . Written ca. 1120 by Persian poet-philosopher Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) , the Rubaiyat is a collection of quatrains, or poems of four lines, intended to prove the futility of mathematics, science, & religion in determining the meaning of life. First translated from Persian to English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald, editions of Khayyam's Rubaiyat have since appeared in numerous forms and languages, the best loved, best known, and most elaborate being this 1884 edition illustrated & designed by Vedder. Vedder was one of the first artists of his generation to train in Paris where he developed his Academic style and focused on what would become his favored subject: the classically proportioned female nude. Vedder also designed the book's cloth-bound cover, lining papers and eccentric hand-drawn letters. With his Academic and yet "visionary" style, Vedder was the ideal artist to interpret the Rubaiyat; he reconciled the critics who called for accurate depiction of observed reality with those who argued for feeling and emotion over objective form. Additionally, Vedder arranged the verses to express the three stages of existence explored in the Rubaiyat -- happiness and youth; death and darkness; and rebirth -- as well as to fit his own romantic interpretation of the verses. A prevalent device is his "cosmic swirl, " which, according to Vedder, represented the "gradual concentration of elements that combined to form life; the sudden pause through the reverse of the movement which marks the instant of life; & then the gradual, ever-widening dispersion again of those elements into space. "Vedder's edition of Khayyam's Rubaiyat was an instant success, selling out only six days after its debut in Boston on November 8, 1884. With the Rubaiyat, Vedder set the standard for artist-designed books in America and England. Critics rushed to acclaim it as a masterwork, and Vedder as a major American artist. Painter, sculptor, mural painter, illustrator, and writer, Vedder was born in New York in 1836. He studied art under T. H. Mattison at Sherburne, NY; then in Paris, in the atelier of Picot; he also studied in Italy. He spent several years in Florence and Rome and returned to New York in 1861, where he remained five years. There he made sketches for Vanity Fair. He returned to Paris for one year; & finally settled in Rome in 1867. His major works include: Five panels in the Library of Congress in Washington & one in Bowdoin College; "The Pleiades" and "African Sentinel," Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; "The Keeper of the Threshold," Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; "The Lair of the Sea Serpent," "Lazarus." "The Sphinx," Boston Museum of Fine Arts; "Storm in Umbria," Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Institute Museum; Rhode Island School of Design. His "Greek Actor's Daughter" was shown at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Vedder is best known for his illustrations of this edition of The Rubaiyat. He was made a National Academician in 1865. Member of Society of Mural Painters; National Institute of Arts and Letters; The Century Society. NY. He won a gold medal at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. He exhibited at the National Sculpture Society in 1923. His written works include "The Digressions of V" and his autobiography. He died in Rome, Italy, in 1923. [Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, p. 972] [Morris & Levin 92] [Potter 201]. An extremely large and heavy book.. Signed by Illustrator. 1st Edition Thus. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Dust Jacket. Illus. by Elihu Vedder. Elephant Folio (approx 15 x 17.5").
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