Exceedingly uncommon signed photograph

Nietzsche, Friedrich, German philosopher and poet (1844-1900). Photograph signed and inscribed.

€ 95.000,00

Vignetted bust portrait by Gustav Adolf Schultze (1825-1897) of Naumburg, taken in late 1882 and showing Nietzsche as he appears on the frontispiece of the 1893 edition of "Also sprach Zarathustra". Inscribed in the image, lower centre, to Meta von Salis ("Fräulein von Salis"). Although Nietzsche was known to have sent photographs of himself to others, he very rarely inscribed them, and the present example contains an instance, possibly unique, of a photograph that is both inscribed and signed by him.

Barbara Margaretha "Meta" von Salis (1855-1929) was a Swiss historian and women's rights activist. Salis met Nietzsche in 1884, and the two corresponded until the onset of his illness, soon after which, in 1894, she co-founded the Nietzsche-Archiv with Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.