Illustrations for the Divan in Editions of Goethe’s Works during his Lifetime

Abstract

ABSTRACT Illustrations accompanied the Divan from the first publication of poems in the Taschenbuch für Damen auf das Jahr 1817 and the frontispiece with writing in Arabic, arabesque ornamentation, and framing of the title page in the 1819 complete first edition. My article investigates the reception of Goethe’s Divan by contemporary artists who provided frontispieces, Titelkupfer, or vignettes for editions of Goethe’s works in the last decade of his life (Ramberg, Eichholzer, and Schnorr von Carolsfeld). It appears that the publishing market was not ready for a wider adaptation of a new West-East combination of traditions suggested by Goethe; the editions were illustrated in the established figurative style, including some clichéd orientalism.