KLEIN - RANIERS WELTREISE by HILDEBRANDT, LILY

HILDEBRANDT, LILY. GERMAN. (HILDEBRANDT,LILY) KLEIN - RANIERS WELTREISE. Munchen: Georg W. Dietrich, 1918. Large oblong 4to (12 3/4 x 10 1/4"), pictorial boards, [32]p., a Fine nearly as new copy in the original plain dust wrapper (dw with some fraying but VG+). 1st edition. THIS COPY HAS A WARM INSCRIPTION FROM LILY TO ARTIST KURT WEINHOLD (AN ARTIST OF THE NEUE SACHLICHKEIT MOVEMENT) BELOW WHICH IS A CIRCA 1914 MOUNTED PHOTO OF LILY, HER HUSBAND HANS AND THEIR BABY SON RANIER FOR WHOM THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN. Featuring 14 fabulous, stylized color lithographs by Hildbrandt with bold geometric shaped pictures, and with pictorial endpapers as well. Written for her son Ranier, each illustration faces verse printed in a large font. Lily was experimenting using abstract design and modern art in children's books and the result is breathtaking. Lily Hildebrandt studied art with Adolf Holzel, first in Stuttgart and then in Munich where she met her husband Hans. Hans was a highly educated, leading figure in the German art and architecture world, writing, teaching and lecturing. He and Lily were close friends with Walter Gropius (with whom she had an affair), Wassily Kandinsky, Willi Baumeister, Adolf Holzel and others. In 1935 Lily's work was labeled degenerate and banned by the Nazi's because she was Jewish. Hans's work was also terminated because he was married to a Jewish woman. For years they lived in fear, especially because their son had been arrested by the Gestapo for being a conscientious objector. They all survived the war. This is a special copy of a striking book, rare in this remarkable condition. See Bilderwelt 60.