153 - Ernst Barlach. *Der arme Vetter*. A book with 34 drawings. Berlin, Paul Cassirer, 1919. With two lithographed title pages. Original half-linen binding. 36 lithographs, loose in an original half-linen folder.

Ernst Barlach. *Der arme Vetter*. A book with 34 drawings. Berlin, Paul Cassirer, 1919. With two lithographed title pages. Original half-linen binding. 36 lithographs, loose in an original half-linen folder. Auction start time: approx. 1:28 p.m. (schedule subject to change) One of 190 copies on Watteau handmade paper (total print run 300). - Imprint signed by the artist. - The lithographs are on yellowish copperplate paper; the text is on handmade paper. - The stones were ground down after the print run was completed. - In this drama, completed in 1917, Barlach drew on memories of the years 1901–1904 spent in the vast Elbe landscape of his homeland. Hans Iver, the “poor cousin of a nobleman,” attempts to take his own life on Easter Sunday by the Elbe. “As Barlach writes in a letter: ‘I am too one-sided a human being, poor cousin, exile, convict; with (forgive me!) clairvoyant relentlessness, I see in people half of something else, so that that little bit of culture doesn’t matter to me at all’“ (ernst-barlach-stiftung.de). - Bookplate by Eduard Erdmann, though not from the 1959 Hauswedell auction (see the note there stating that the widow retained a number of works—including some by Ernst Barlach—for herself and her children). Laur 54. - Feilchenfeldt/Brandis 6.0.B. - Jentsch 57 49.0 × 35.0 cm. 112 pages; 36 lithographs. - The batik-patterned cover paper on the front cover of the book is slightly rubbed and stained. - Two lithographs (sheets 28 and 29) were added later (slightly browned, with the margins trimmed by about 3 cm each).