82.14 Mephisto

1927

Lithograph, 10 5/8 x 8" (26.8 x 20 cm)

Signed, lr: Slevogt 385

Provenance: Galerie Voemel, Dusseldorf, July 1952

As Max Göring states in Thieme-Becker Künstler-Lexikon, Slevogt’s last major graphic work was for a publication of Faust in 1925-1927: “In the Faust illustrations, impressions in the most delicate style are revealed, the lithograph crayon again finds new paths...Slevogt’s Faust illustrations are not only a technical peak in illustrative art. Apart from all formal considerations, Slevogt captured in these congenial depictions the spiritual world of Goethe.” This rendition of Mephisto is simply a quick sketch of the character, with no specific delineation of his features aside from the rather ominous appearance of his costume. Still, Slevogt effectively conveys the essence of the devil’s presence in Goethe’s work.

Twelve Drawings of the Fairy Tale “The Singing Lark” (Zwölf Zeichnungen zu dem Märchen “Das singende springene Löweneckerchen”) 1924

By 1924, when this series of 12 woodcuts appeared, Slevogt had gained great frame as an illustrator of adventure stories and fairy tales. This portfolio is one in a set of illustrations to Grimm’s fairy tales that the Berlin art publisher Cassirer commissioned between 1922 and 1924. Slevogt provided the drawings, completed in his characteristically delicate and nervous hand; these were then made into woodcuts by Otto Bangemann. The elegance of Bangemann’s craftsmanship is as remarkable as Slevogt’s original conceptions.

The story illustrated here was one of the original Grimm stories, entitled in English, “The Singing, Springing Lark.” The tale involves a favored daughter whose father, in attempting to catch for her a singing lark, offends the lark’s owner, a fierce lion. In retribution, the lion demands that the man send his daughter to him. The dutiful daughter promises to fulfill the father’s debt and journeys to the lion’s home; there she finds that the lion is actually an enchanted prince who returns to human form at night. They live an elegant life, attended by other lions as servants. They remain happily married until the daughter implores her husband to accompany her to her father’s castle for a celebration. He finally agrees, and they travel to the castle, accompanied by their small child. A ray of light strikes the lion-prince who is turned into a dove, fated to fly through the world for seven years. His loving wife obeys his orders, which require that she must follow him and that every seventh step, he as a dove, will shed a drop of blood and a white feather so that he can be sighted. After seven years, he is to be released from the spell and returned to human form. At the end of this period, however, the dove disappears; the distraught wife asks the Sun, Moon, and the Winds if they have seen him. Each give her a gift to help her in her quest. The south Wind also tells her that her husband is at the Red Sea, where he is in combat with a Princess-Sorceress who appears in the guise of a dragon. Having fallen under the evil princess’ spell, the prince-lion-dove forgets his wife and is taken to the princess’ palace, where they are to wed. The wife continues to pursue him and, with the aid of the presents from the Sun, Moon, and Winds, is able to break the spell. Her husband is restored to her as a man and they return home where they find their children and live happily ever after.