MEYER, Conrad Ferdinand (1825-1898)

MEYER, Conrad Ferdinand (1825-1898)

Autograph poem signed « Conrad Ferdinand Meyer » on the verso of a period albumen print
N.p, 18th Nov[ember] 1895, (12,3 x 17 cm)
Albumen print glued on thick cardboard (12,8 x 17,7 cm), golden edges
Dry stamp on lower right corner in the photographer’s credit : « Ganz Zürich »
Some slight surface flaws, tiny stains on the verso (see scan)

Meyer writes one of his most famous poems on the back of his portrait by Rudolf Ganz

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Conrad Ferdinand Meyer is immortalized here at his office in Kilchberg by photographer Rudolf Ganz in the southern suburbs of Zurich. The writer appears with a pen in his hand, in a studious atmosphere and surrounded by countless books arranged in disorder on his work table.
We know of him a slightly different pose taken during this same session on October 3, 1895, with his gaze shifted to his right.

On the back of the print, Meyer wrote one of his most famous poems:

« Bei der Abendsonne Wandern
Wann ein Dorf den Strahl verlor,
Klagt sein Dunkeln es den andern
Mit vertrauten Tönen vor.

Noch ein Glöcklein hat geschwiegen
Auf der Höhe bis zuletzt.
Nun beginnt es sich zu wiegen,
Horch, mein Kilchberg läutet jetzt!

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer
18 nov. 1895 »

Composed of two octosyllabic quatrains, this short and moving poem was first published in the second part of his collection Gedichte, in 1882, by Verlag von H. Haessel in Leipzig, Germany. Meyer published four new editions of the same collection until 1892, illustrating the transition from narrative poetry in ballads to poetry of intense lyricism.