Beschreibung:

MAHLER, Gustav (1850-1911) Autograph letter signed (‘Gustav Mahler’) to [Emil] Orlik, n.p. [?Vienna], n.d. [?c.1902]. In German. One page, 174 x 133mm, bifolium, watermarked ‘Margaret Mill Ivory Paper/ Vienna Manufacture’. Provenance: by descent. Mahler writes to the artist Emil Orlik who completed his iconic portrait of the composer in 1902, enclosing some pictures. Mahler explains: ‘Since the picture I ordered from Italy has not arrived yet but you are leaving this evening, I take the liberty of providing you with my own. In any case, you will remove the frame and have new, better ones made to your own taste’. He thanks Orlik once more for the splendid photographs and for the wonderful hours they spent together. The Prague-born painter, etcher and lithographer Emil Orlik (1870-1932) travelled widely through fin-de-siècle Europe at the beginning of his career, before spending months alone in Japan in 1900-1901 studying the art of woodcut printing: one of the few European artists to have undertaken a journey to Japan at that time. He returned to Vienna in 1901, his work graced with a subtlety and elegance admired by critics. In 1902, he completed a fine portrait of Gustav Mahler, which he dispersed as an etching that has been widely reproduced in many biographies of the composer.