Miss Träumerei
Date1895
Artist
Ethel Reed
(American graphic artist, 1874–1912)
Illustration CitationAdvertising poster for the novel Miss Träumerei: A Weimar Idyl, by Albert Morris Bagby (Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Co., 1895)
MediumThree-color commercial lithograph
Dimensions20 1/2 × 15 3/8 in. (52 × 39 cm)
Credit LineGift of Lucinda and David Pollack, 2015
Object number2015-82
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextEthel Reed attended Cowles School of Art in her native Boston, and by the age of 19 had her own studio there. In the mid-1890s, she joined Lamson, Wolffe, and Company as a book illustrator, and cover design and advertising artist. She was influenced by the Art Nouveau style, seen here in the swirling lines and profusion of natural forms; and by the expanses of flat color characteristic of Japanese art. For this poster, Reed used various typefaces; the author's name curves wave-like over the title. The German word Traumerei, meaning daydream, is also the last name of the book's title character as well as of a piece for piano by Schumann. Reed gained international recognition for her work and by 1896 was living in London, invited to replace Aubrey Beardsley on the avant-garde journal The Yellow Book. Mysteriously, Reed and her work disappeared from public view in 1898. It is now believed that she suffered from various illnesses and fell into poverty.
