2-999-378 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Cover of "Le Roi des Aulnes" (Der Erlkönig), 1904. Decorative cover made by Léon Gruel who chose to employ a traditional 16th-century style of decoration featuring interconnected ribbons called "strapwork." However, he added a bit of Gilded Age flair. Two dragons with necks entwined add a dramatic element that would not have been found in the original version of the style. The book is an illustrated edition of a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) written in 1782, and includes the piano score of the music to which it was set by composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) in 1815.