Approximately 260 individual issues bound into 10 volumes, large 4to. Illustrated throughout with color printed cover illustrations for each issue, by Karl Arnold, Julius Carben, Hans Christiansen, Otto Eckman, Willy Hallstein, Hugo Höppener ("Fidus"), Ephraim Moses Lilies, Alexander von Salzmann, Hans Unger, Ludwig Vacatko, Rudolf Wilke, Josef Rudolf Witzel, Alfred Zimmermann, and others (toning, minor marginal chipping, edges trimmed on front covers of many issues). Contemporary half cloth (rubbing). Provenance: "Mr. F. Delgouffre", possibly Fernand Delgouffre (1848-1900), Belgian artist (penciled inscriptions at top of many issues).

THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF ONE OF GERMANY'S MOST SIGNIFICANT ART MAGAZINES.

Jugend was an arts magazine founded in Munich by Georg Hirth and Fritz von Ostini in 1896. Hailed for its "shockingly brilliant covers and radical editorial tone," the magazine's aim, according to Hirth, was to start a new cultural movement in Germany. Highly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, its focus gradually shifted to Art Nouveau. Eventually, the magazine itself would lend its name to a new artistic movement highly influenced by Art Nouveau, called "Jugendstil"; Gustav Klimt in particular cited the movement as a profound influence on his own work and credited it with his establishment of the Vienna Secession, by far the most influential iteration of Jugendstil. In addition to art the magazine published literary pieces by Michael Georg Conrad, Maxim Gorky, Elsa Sophia von Kamphoevener, Christian Morgenstern, Carl von Scapinelli, and many other highly influential writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"A year after Pan, a magazine was founded in Munich which, because it was not only groundbreaking but also influential and truly popular, can perhaps be called the most important magazine of the era, the magazine that gave its name to an entire style: Jugend. Thus, Jugend, with the subtitle 'Munich Illustrated Weekly for Art and Life,' became synonymous with an entire movement." (Rennhofer, Kunstzeitschriften der Jahrhundertwende in Deutschland und Österreich, p.54). Diesch 2668; Hofstätter pp.125; Kirchner 15532; Schlawe I, 55.