The Mountains of the Old and New Worlds Compared

The artwork

On the boulder in the foreground, at the bottom, a dedication is engraved, “Dédié à Mr de Humboldt par Mr de Göthe”: these mountains were drawn by Goethe himself, for Alexander von Humboldt. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The mountains of two continents drawn by Goethe, with Chimborazo and a balloon, engraved and coloured.
• In the large format, above a desk, it holds the eye for a long time.
• A gift for anyone who loves the mountains or Goethe.

In 1807 Humboldt dedicated the German edition of his essay on the geography of plants to Goethe. The plate meant to go with it, the great profile of the Andes, had not yet reached Weimar, so Goethe made one himself, half in jest and half in earnest, and dedicated it to Humboldt: the mountains of the Old World on the left, those of the New World on the right. On Chimborazo he placed a tiny figure, Humboldt himself, at the height he had reached with Bonpland on 23 June 1802. And higher than any peak, on the left, he set the balloon in which Gay-Lussac had risen above Paris on 16 September 1804, to about seven thousand metres.

In 1813 Friedrich Justin Bertuch published the drawing in Weimar in his Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden, and that same year this engraved and coloured French copy, “Esquisse des principales hauteurs des deux continens”, came out in Paris. According to the note at the bottom it was taken from the forty-first volume of the Ephemeriden, with a few important places added. This copy comes from an atlas of the Géographie mathématique, physique et politique by Edme Mentelle and Conrad Malte-Brun, now in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Hung above the desk of someone who loves the mountains, or among the books of someone who keeps Goethe on the bedside table, it is a gift to look at for a long time. And on the boulder in the foreground, Goethe is still dedicating his mountains to Humboldt.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass