Carl Rahl and the Ponte Molle Society
"Erinnerung an Rom und meine Freunde". Friendship album containing 28 entries (mostly by members of the "Ponte Molle Society").
8vo. 112, (4) pp. with colour-printed or blindstamped decorative borders. Contemporary full calf.
€ 3,500.00
Glanz probably assembled the present album on the occasion of a visit to the German artists' association "Ponte Molle Society" on 18 March 1843. The Society, a humorous artists' club based at the Palazzo Serlupi near the Pantheon, was a popular venue for German artists and Rome travellers, offering art exhibitions, events, and a well-stocked library. In 1845 it metamorphosed into the more serious-minded "Deutscher Künstlerverein". The most prominent contributor to this album is the Viennese painter and engraver Carl Rahl (1812-65), who had been living in Rome since 1836 and was closely involved with the Ponte Molle Society, serving as its "People's Tribune" in 1840/41. After his return to Vienna in 1850, Rahl became professor at the academy. A precursor to Makart, he championed a drastic and colourful eclecticism which exerted an enormous influence on the painters of Vienna's Ringstrasse era (cf. Thieme/Becker XXVII, 570). Glanz, the owner of the album, is identified in the full-page entry of Johann Christian Reinhart (p. 97; Rome, 25 March 1843): "At the same time, dear Mr. Glanz, I wish you a happy and enjoyable journey" (transl.).
The contributors are, in the order of their entries: 1) Alexius Fedor Geyer (Berlin); 2) Adam Bamelmayr; 3) Friedrich Strache (Vienna); 4) Robert Salemann (Reval); 5) Heinrich Wilhelm (Heidelberg); 6) Eduard Schwab (Mähren); 7) Ivanoff (St Petersburg); 8) Peter Petersen (Copenhagen); 9) Alexandre Reuben (Paris); 10) Christian Friderik Holbeck (Copenhagen); 11) Carl Mayer (Vienna); 12) Hermann Schievelbein (Berlin); 13) Peter Raadfig (Copenhagen); 14) Carl Adolf Senff (Halle); 15) Gustav W. Palm (Stockholm); 16) Wilhelm Achtermann (Prussia); 17) Constantin Schmidt (Mainz/Rhein); 18) Carl Rahl; 19) Theodor Naphtali (Berlin); 20) Wilhelm Matthiae; 21) Louis Vogel (Hildburghausen); 22) J. M. Scharff (Hütteldorf near Vienna); 23) Adolf Dressler (Berlin); 24) Jan Thienen; 25) (pseud.) "Caspar Hauser" (Basel); 26) Wilhelm Seiffert (Wroclaw); 27) Heinrich Im Hof (Uri).
Spine and front hinge professionally repaired; slight brownstaining to interior fleckig.
