117

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

In the Bottom of My Garden. Inscribed to Rainer Crone.

[New York]: Privately printed by the artist, ca. 1956.
Limited edition, oblong quarto; signed and inscribed by Warhol to art historian Rainer Crone (1942-2016) inside a drawing of a Campbell's soup can in blue felt tip marker on the first blank; complete with 21 offset lithographs (including the front cover design), 18 of which are hand-colored by the artist with watercolor; bound in pictorial white wove paper over boards (occasional spots, minor waving to leaves; sewing somewhat loose with contents starting, spotting and soiling, small stains to lower board, losses to wove paper at extremities, neat archival tape reinforcement to spine); 8 ½ x 11 in. 

Warhol's whimsical work In the Bottom of My Garden was limited to an unknown number of copies and auction records indicate that some bear more hand-coloring than others. Most of the illustrations in the present lot are at least partially colored, thus surpassing many of those previously offered at auction as well as both copies depicted in Feldman/Schellmann. This level of individualization differs markedly from Warhol's later embrace of aesthetic mass production, making the work a compelling example of his early practices. 

Rainer Crone was a highly respected German art historian and one of the leading authorities on Warhol's work. He is best known for compiling the artist's first catalogue raisonné in July 1970. That publication, together with Crone's PhD thesis, is widely regarded as among the earliest scholarly studies of Warhol's art in Europe. 

Feldman/Schellmann IV.86A-105A/B, page 318.

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