Kokoschka: Life and Work, Edith Hoffmann, 1947

Kokoschka: Life and Work by Edith Hoffmann, published by Faber & Faber in London in 1947, is a comprehensive critical biography and study of Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), one of the most influential European artists of the twentieth century. The book examines Kokoschka's life and development in close detail, tracing his career from Vienna's Secession-era milieu through his time in Dresden, his years as an itinerant painter across Europe and North Africa, and his later emergence as an international figure. The volume is illustrated throughout with a selection of black-and-white plates reproducing his paintings, drawings, and graphic works, with additional color plates pasted in. This copy was distributed in the United States through the Boston Book and Art Shop, whose bookseller sticker appears inside the front cover. The yellow cloth boards are bright and solid, with a red spine label intact. Endpapers show foxing and light age toning consistent with a book of this age. Interior pages and plate sections are clean and largely free of markings. Binding is firm.