Andersen, Hans. Mayselech [“Fairy Tales”]. Translated into Yiddish by Der Nister (Pinchas Kahanovich)

(LISSITZKY, ELIEZER)

Kiever Farlag

Kiev

1919

Cover illustration by LISSITZKY. Numberous text illustrations

Israel Museum Catalogue, Tradition and Revolution (1987), no. 85 and fig. 30 (illustrated); Busch-Reisinger Museum Catalogue, El Lissitzky (1987) no. 1919/2

RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST SUPREMATIST INFLUENCED ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S BOOK Lissitzky’s later Yiddish book illustrations combine some of Chagall’s influence with the new ideas of Constructivism. The cover illustration to Mayselech is purely Constructivist in style. It is the first children’s illustration showing the inklings of Suprematist influence. “The typography is again an important part of the dynamics of the design, in which mass and voids interact with the stylized contour of the flying bird carrying the child. While the typography still has a folksy appearance, the bird and the child are stripped of their natural look and infused instead with an “industrial” touch.” See:Ruth Apter-Gabriel, El Lissitzky’s Jewish Works, in Israel Museum Catalogue, Tradition and Revolution, p.111. Lissitzky’s initials, “E.L” appearing in the lower-right corner of the frame, are joined in a manner taken directly from medieval Aschkenazic Hebrew manuscripts