Lot 17A email save

BEM, Elizaveta Merkurevna (1843-1914) and Ivan Yak

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Paris: I. S. Lapina, [1913]. 2nd part. 42 pp. Large folio (400 x 310 mm). With 17 tipped-in color plates after E. Bem and vignettes by N. Ivanov. Rebound in cloth-backed gray boards with the original gilt decorated gray wrappers. Rebound with Volga. Petrograd: I. I. Bilibina, 1904. 16 pp. Large Folio (400 x 310 mm). Illustrated with color lithographs after I. Ya. Bilibin. Original decorated wrappers bound in. Condition: abrasions to back cover; occasional light spotting and thumbsoiling internally. two of the most beautiful russian picture books bound together. Bem began her career as one of the earliest Russian women children's book illustrators with studies of local child life all in silhouettes. This suite of elaborate watercolors for Azbuka comprise her most ambitious work. Again she used child models in these sensitive, complex compositions and drew on Russian folk art and folklore for her details. Bilibin's Volga is one of the magnificent publications of the Silver Age. He drew on his vast knowledge of ancient Russian folk art for costumes, architecture and interiors as well as the style and content of these extraordinary color lithographs.

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