Beschreibung:

Schwellen, Berlin, Germany, 1923. 330 x 495 mm. In Yiddish. Oblong foio. Lithograph half-title and title, and 29 additional full-page lithographs (all). The lithographs are all dated 1917 in the stone. Of the 30 half-tone plates (Title + plates numbered from III-XXXI), four are printed in bistre, and the others in sepia The lithographs portray personal memories of life in the shtetl, conveyed in images, reminiscent of Chagall but with a more somber and tragic sentiment, that show influences of Cubism, Expressionism, and Constructivism, with asymetrical designs, exaggerated facial features and other progressive aesthetic concerns, incorporating and transforming prototypical images of Jewish life in rural Eastern Europe. They depict the peaceful daily life of a traditional Jewish shtetl before the upcoming destructions and massacres: a city street, the artisans (including a shoemaker, a tailor and a knife-sharpener), musicians, the market, the synagogue, a wedding, a funeral, the Jewish cemetery, the rabbi and the Hasidic rebbe. Boards with title and striking image on front cover.