BENOIS A.N. (1870-1960) Pushkin A.S. Mednyy vsadnik. Peterburgskaya povest’ [The Bronze Horseman. A Petersburg Tale]; illustrated by A. Benois. Munich: Orchis, 1922.

38, [2] pp.: ill.; 24.5 x 16.5 cm. In the publisher’s illustrated composite boards. In good condition. Minor soiling to the binding. Contemporary presentation inscription on the free endpaper: ‘To my dear Shurik, you must remain Russian and learn about Great Russia, from the great Tsar Peter, as Pushkin sang of him. You must learn it all by heart. Your devotedly loving Papa. 19 30/10 30. From Berlin’. Benois worked on this cycle for many years. The first version of the illustrations appeared in 1903 (in Rome and St Petersburg); it was acquired by S.P. Diaghilev and published in the first issue of the journal ‘Mir iskusstva’ for 1904. In 1905, by then in Versailles, the artist reworked six of the earlier drawings and added a frontispiece. Benois created the final, third version of the cycle in 1916 and added new drawings in 1921-1922; it is this version that was published in Munich. The Orchis publishing house was founded by the Russian émigré Woldemar (Vladimir Frantsevich) Klein. The book appeared simultaneously in Russian and in German (translated by Johannes von Guenther).