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(HILL, C. F.) BLOMBERG, Eirk.
Drawings by C.F. Hill.
First Edition, edition of 625 copies "375 are for sale numbered 1-375, and 250 copies numbered I-CCL", this copy XV. Born in Lund, Sweden, Hill travelled to France in 1873 in search of his artistic ideal, which he came to feel that he had discovered at Barbizon, falling under the influence of Daubigny, Theodore Rousseau, Corot and Courbet. For a while he painted landscapes in a style very close to that of Corot, and had a painting accepted for the Paris Salon in 1875. But by 1876 he had adopted a lighter, airier "unfinished" style and his entry was refused by the Salon. His originality had been noted by the Impressionists who invited him to show with them in 1877, but it was in that year that he suffered his first mental crisis. In January 1878 he was placed in an asylum in Paris where he stayed until he was sent home in 1880. From then until his death in 1911 he was cared for by his mother and sisters at home in Lund, for thirty years steadily turning out thousands of ink and crayon drawings straddling the border of naturalism and the fantastic, possessed of a uniquely concentrated visionary quality. In 1994 interest in him revived when Georg Baselitz produced a book on his work for the Danish publishers Bløndal. A beautifully produced monograph, text printed by G. Girard and plates engraved by Guezelle and Renouard.
Quarto. Text and plates loose, as issued, in publisher's printed stiff wrappers, glassine dust jacket, in original ecru rough linen clamshell box. Colour frontispiece and 25 fine colour reproductions of drawings, in window mounts, illustrations to the text. Near fine.
