Raphael Kirchner - 2 antieke albums: the KIRCHNER ALBUM, twelve prints in colours

Antique albums by Raphael Kirchner
2 Albums, first and second edition (?)
Beautiful image material, 12 colored images per album, of attractive young pinup women
Estimated period 1900-1920
Size 21 x 30 cm
Bound with original ribbon

Raphaël Kirchner was born in 1875 in Vienna where he attended school until he moved to Paris in 1900. He started working as an illustrator for several magazines such as “La vie Parisienne”. It was in this context that he created his first series of cards about the Japanese 'art de vivre'. The series “Geisha” and “Mikado” remain a real sensation to this day.

But what really made Kirchner famous were the erotic postcards that went a step further. “Kirchner’s women” showed increasingly scantily clad women… and the public loved them!
Kirchner also worked on a number of advertising campaigns, including for the drinks brand Byrrh and the perfumery Lubin.
After 1910 he left Paris for London and later crossed the ocean to settle in New York. He first worked there as a costume maker and illustrator for the theatre. But what he remembers best are the “Girls” he created for the magazine Weekly