Miss Träumerei

Miss Träumerei
Miss Träumerei

Miss Träumerei

Date1895
Artist (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 view
ClassificationsPRINT
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.