somov's famous illustrations

Konstantin Somov (1869-1939), Russian painter and graphic artist, was a student of Ilya Repin and a close associate of Benois, Diaghilev and Bakst. His father was curator to the Hermitage Museum and he was strongly influenced by Watteau, Fragonard and Old Master paintings he had admired from a young age.

Somov had a penchant for drama and was drawn to the elegant but bawdy nature of French erotic writing of the 18th century. He spent over a decade working on illustrations for this anthology of Laclos, Casanova and Voltaire, with his work becoming more erotic as time progressed. The playful scenes of harlequins, fireworks and illicit kisses have become synonymous with the 'Somovian' world which revealed a bitter irony and the complex changes taking place in society at the beginning of the 20th-century.

limited edition, one of 800 copies; 4to (25 x 20 cm); half-title, title-page with frontispiece, 196pp., illustrated throughout, with 22 hors-texte; original yellow silk covered boards with gilt title to upper cover, spine a little stained, silk split to lower spine, a very good copy.