The Suicide Club

Artist Karl Schrag (American, born 1912)

Publisher Pierre Berès, New York, 1941

Author Robert Louis Stevenson (British, 1850-1894)

Date1941

DimensionsBook: H: 10 3/8 in. (263 mm); W: 7 (178 mm); Depth: 11/16 in. (17 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 10 in. (254 mm); W: 6 5/8 in. (169 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 18 etchings with aquatint and drypoint. Text: letterpress. Paper: Vidalon cream wove paper, watermarked.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.1060

Not on View

Label TextKarl Schrag, The Suicide Club. Text by Robert Louis Stevenson (1941) German-born painter and printmaker Karl Schrag came to New York as a young man in 1938. There he worked at Stanley William Hayter’s famous print studio, Atelier 17. Schrag said of his experiences in the busy studio, “It was something just to see Miró working alongside of you. It was a warm and hopeful group atmosphere.” When Hayter returned to Europe in 1950, Schrag took over as director of the studio. In 1941, Schrag was commissioned to illustrate Robert Louis Stevenson’s trio of short stories, The Suicide Club. This was Schrag's only work in book illustration. The stories had first been published in serial form in 1878 as the beginning of a group of stories called the Latter-Day Arabian Nights. The Suicide Club is a macabre tale in three parts about a sinister club that, for a fee, arranges the murder of its miserable, down-on-their-luck members by lottery. The murderer is also chosen by lottery from among the other members of the club. Death is made to appear an accident. The club is infiltrated by the adventure-seeking incognito Prince of Bohemia, who narrowly escapes his own death and sets out to bring justice to the despicable president of the club.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003.

Toledo Museum of Art, In Motion: Dance and Performance in Art, September 18, 2015- January 3, 2016.