Illustration to Voltaire, "La Princesse de Babilone"
in or before 1942
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color woodcut and wood engraving [trial proof]
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.17.427
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of Art's Prints department will delight in Imre Reiner's *Illustration to Voltaire, "La Princesse de Babilone"*, a color woodcut and wood engraving trial proof created in or before 1942. This work visually interprets Voltaire's 1768 satirical novella, a whimsical Enlightenment tale blending ancient Babylonian romance, philosophy, and critique of absolutism. Reiner, a Hungarian-born graphic artist active in Europe during a turbulent era, captures the story's exotic allure through bold, intricate designs, bridging 18th-century literature with mid-20th-century pri...
About the Artist
Imre Reiner
**Imre Reiner** (1900–1987) was a Hungarian-born Swiss painter, graphic artist, typographer, and master illustrator whose multifaceted career bridged sculpture, experimental typography, and exquisite wood engravings. Born on August 18, 1900, in Versec (now Vršac, Serbia) to a Jewish family—his father a sculptor and stone carver who apprenticed him young—Reiner began formal studies at age 15 in scu...