Zweiundzwanzig Handzeichnungen von Goethe. 1810.

From a childhood spent wandering the Frankfurt woods to his later days sketching in the banks of the Rhine, the poet’s notebook reveals a lifelong fascination with line and form. Early excursions produced modest nature studies that his father carefully guarded, while encounters with fellow artists in Leipzig and Weimar encouraged him to experiment with graphite, ink and even oil portraiture. These youthful attempts, though never meant for public display, earned quiet admiration from friends who noted his “gift for seeing objects as art.”

The collection gathered in 1810 brings together twenty‑two of those fleeting images, each accompanied by Goethe’s own commentary and the meticulous transcription of later editors. Listeners will hear how the drawings resurfaced during his final years, when a surge of creative energy prompted him to assemble the works into a single album, offering a personal glimpse into the mind of a literary giant whose visual imagination ran parallel to his celebrated writings.