Brittany

London : Adam & Charles Black, 1905. Quarto, gilt-lettered decorated cloth over bevelled boards (lightly marked, spine slightly dulled), upper hinge cracked top edge gilt, others uncut, endpapers foxed, pp. x; 254, illustrated with 75 colour plates with captioned tissue guards, occasional scattered foxing, a very good copy. The edition de luxe, limited to 350 numbered copies signed by Mortimer Menpes.

A fine illustrated work by Adelaide born artist Mortimer Menpes, with text written by his daughter Dorothy Whistler Menpes. Mortimer Menpes moved to England at the age of twenty where he would enjoy a successful career in painting and etching. In 1880 he embarked on a sketching tour of Brittany, where he befriended James MacNeil Whistler becoming his pupil and close associate, learning the art of etching from the master. Menpes became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1881, Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1885, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897 and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1899, and amongst other achievements, was also godfather to Oscar Wilde’s son Vyvyan.