Figures & Portraits
€ 320
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Antique print titled 'Elisabeth Kulmann'.
Portrait of Elisabeth Kulmann, after a bust by Paolo Catozzi. Elisabeth Kulmann was a Russian-born poet and translator who worked in Russian, German and Italian. This print originates from 'Meyers Konversations-Lexikon' published circa 1850.
Kulmann was born in the Russian Empire, where she and her family lived on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. As a child, Kulman showed phenomenal philological abilities, learning ancient and modern languages under the direction of Karl Grosgeynrikh. She achieved fluency in 11 languages. Kulman wrote over 1,000 poems before her death at age 17. Robert Schumann considered her a wunderkind and set some of her poems to music including "Mailied" ["May Song"] and "An den Abendstern" ["To the Evening Star"]. Kulman was buried in the Smolensky Cemetery in St. Petersburg, in a tomb bearing a carving by Alexander Triscorni - a marble sculpture of a girl on a bed of roses. The monument bears inscriptions in several languages, including Latin: Prima Russicarum operam dedit idiomati graeco, undecim novit linguas, loquebatur octo, quamquam puella poetria eminens (The first Russian young girl, who knew the Greek language, and learned eleven languages, spoken in eight, and was an excellent poet). In the 1930s, the Soviet authorities moved Kulman's remains to the Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky monastery. (Source: wikipedia)
Artists and Engravers: Joseph Meyer (May 9, 1796 - June 27, 1856) was a German industrialist and publisher, most noted for his encyclopedia, Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. Meyer operated very successfully as a publisher, employing a system of serial subscription to publications, which was new at that time. To this end he founded a company, Bibliographisches Institut, in Gotha in 1826. It published several editions of the Bible, works of classical literature ("Miniatur-Bibliothek der deutschen Classiker", "Groschen-Bibliothek"), atlases, the world in pictures on steel engravings ("Meyers Universum", 1833–61, 17 volumes in 12 languages with 80,000 subscribers all over Europe), and an encyclopaedia.
Condition: Fair/good, general age-related toning. Shows some wear/creasing and soiling, blank verso. Please study image carefully.
