Beethoven Häuser

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Title Page
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Schwarzspanierhaus
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Schwarzspanierhaus
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Nußdorf Kahlenbergstraße 26
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Mödling Hauptstraße 79
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Mödling Hauptstraße 79
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Heiligenstadt Probusgasse
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Heiligenstadt Probusgasse
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Heiligenstadt Pfarrplatz 2
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Heiligenstadt Pfarrplatz 2
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Heiligenstadt Grinzingerstraße
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Moll
Beethoven Häuser - Eroicagasse
1902
color woodblock print
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

"Il était petit et trapu, de forte encolure, de charpente athlétique.  Une large figure, de couleur rouge brique, sauf vers la fin de sa vie, où le teint devint maladif et jaunâtre, surtout l'hiver, quand il restait enfermé, loin des champs.  Un front puissant et bosselé.  Des cheveux extrêmement noirs, extraordinairement épais, où il semblait que le peigne n'eût jamais passé, hérissés de toutes parts, "les serpents de Méduse." Les yeux brûlaient d'une force prodigieuse, qui saisit tous ceux qui le virent: mais la plupart se trompèrent sur leur nuance.  Comme ils flambaient d'un éclat sauvage dans une figure brune et tragique, on les vit généralement noirs; ils ne l'étaient pas, mais blue gris. Petits et très profondément enfoncés, ils s'ouvraient brusquement dans la passion ou la colère, et alors roulaient dans leurs orbites, reflétant toutes leurs pensées avec une vérité merveilleuse.  Souvent ils tournaient vers le ciel un regard mélancolique.  Le nez était court et carré, large, un mufle de lion.  Une bouche délicate, mais dont la lèvre inférieure tendait à avancer sur l'autre.  Des mâchoires redoutables, qui auraient pu broyer des noix.  Une fossette profonde au menton, du côté droit, donnait une étrange dissymétrie à la face. "Il avait un bon sourire," dit Moscheles, "et dans la conversation, un air souvent aimable et encourageant.  En revanche, le rire était désagréable, violent et grimaçant, du reste court" – le rire d'un homme qui n'est pas accoutumé à la joie.  Son expression habituelle était mélancolique, "un tristesse incurable." Rellstab, en 1825, dit qu'il a besoin de toutes ses forces pour s'empêcher de pleurer, en voyant "ses deux yeux et leur douleur poignante." Braun von Braunthal, un an plus tard, le rencontre à une brasserie; il est assis dans un coin, il fume une longue pipe, et il a les yeux fermés, comme il fait de plus en plus, à mesure qu'il approche de la mort." 

– Romain Roland, Vie de Beethoven (1903)

Bygone Musicians

Leonardo da Vinci
Portrait of a Musician
ca. 1485
tempera and oil on panel
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio)
Portrait of a Musician
ca. 1515-20
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

attributed to Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli
Portrait of a Musician
ca. 1540
oil on panel
Saint Louis Art Museum

Jean-Jacques Caffieri
Portrait of composer Jean-Philippe Rameau
1760
terracotta
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Jean-Simon Berthélemy
 Augustin Chéron in the title role of Fabius,
opera by Jean-Nicolas Méreaux
ca. 1798
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

attributed to Antoine-Jean Gros
Portrait of composer Étienne-Henri Méhul
1799
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Louis-Léopold Boilly
Portrait of composer François-Adrien Boieldieu
ca. 1800
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Portrait of composer Luigi Cherubini
ca. 1820
drawing
Musée Bonnat Helleu, Bayonne

Caroline Bardua
Portrait of composer Carl Maria von Weber
1821
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Achille Devéria
Portrait of singer Eugénie Garcia
ca. 1830-40
lithograph
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Alexis-Joseph Perignon
Portrait of singer Marietta Alboni
ca. 1870
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Auguste Toulmouche
Portrait of singer Rose Caron
ca. 1880
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Portrait of violinist Ignacy Jan Paderewski
1891
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Henri Manuel
Portrait of singer/composer Reynaldo Hahn
ca. 1900
photographic postcard
Wellcome Collection, London

Jacques-Émile Blanche
Portrait of Désirée Manfred as Cherubino
in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
ca. 1904
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Jacob Hilsdorf
Portrait of Cosima Wagner
1911
platinum print
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Nous sommes là devant.

Voyez comme ils changent, quand on se déplace vers la gauche. Je vois presque la sainte table, sous la main appuyée de Prieur. Et devant Couthon, n'est-ce pas le verre de vin? Non, ce doit être le rouge et le bleu du plumet du chapeau de Prieur. Mais pas de cloches ni de chevaux.

Non, sans doute, pas de chevaux. Et pourtant: voyez bien les onze têtes pâles l'une après l'autre alignée, detachée, jaillie nue de son amas de soie, de feutre, de drap; les onze masques: – Billaud, pâle et long issu de l'habit noir sous la crinière de feu, Carnot pâle issue de la houppelande noire, les deux Prieur émergeant du casaquin à la nation, la tête chue plus bas de Couthon assis portée par la double robe de soufre et de basalte, et de nouveau à bonne hauteur la face pâle de Robespierre offerte dans la défroque plus noire que noir – et le masque nommé Collot suspendu au-dessus de sa pyramide de collets renversés, et tous les autres à l'avenant jusqu'à Jean Bon jailli du casaquin tricolore redondant. Ces têtes esseulées et perchées vous font penser à quelque chose, quelque chose de plus ancien et de moins conjecturel que des têtes coupées au bout d'une pique, comme on l'a trop dit. 

– Pierre Michon, from Les Onze (Verdier, 2009)

PaJaMa and Environs - IV

Jared French
Ted Starkowski
ca. 1954
drawing
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Jared French
Study of Model
ca. 1930-40
drawing
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Chuck Howard and Ted Starkowski
1953
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Charles Daugherty, Paul Cadmus, Jared French
1938
gelatin silver prints mounted together
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
George Platt Lynes and Jared French - Fire Island
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
George Platt Lynes
1941
gelatin silver print
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Glenway Wescott - Fire Island
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Donald Windham
1938
gelatin silver prints mounted together
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Arthur Dunne
1938
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Arthur Dunne
1938
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

George Platt Lynes
Tex Smutney and Buddy Stanley
1941
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

George Platt Lynes
Blanchard Kennedy
1936
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Aaron Copland rehearsing Billy the Kid
1938
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

George Platt Lynes
The Firebird
(Maria Tallchief and Francisco Moncion)
ca. 1949
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

George Platt Lynes
Balanchine's Bourée Fantastique
(Tanaquil Le Clercq and Jerome Robbins)
1949
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

George Platt Lynes
Tanaquil Le Clercq
ca. 1950
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

George Platt Lynes
Tanaquil Le Clercq in Balanchine's Metamorphoses
ca. 1950-51
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Arboretum

We had the problem of age, the problem of wishing to linger. 

Not needing, anymore, even to make a contribution.

Merely wishing to linger: to be, to be here.

And to stare at things, but with no real avidity. 

To browse, to purchase nothing.

But there were many of us; we took up time. We crowded out

our own children, and the children of friends. We did great damage,

meaning no harm.

We continued to plan; to fix things as they broke.

To repair, to improve. We traveled, we put in gardens.

And we continued brazenly to plant trees and perennials. 

We asked so little of the world. We understood

the offense of advice, of holding forth. We checked ourselves:

we were correct, we were silent.

But we could not cure ourselves of desire, not completely.

Our hands, folded, reeked of it.

How did we do so much damage, merely sitting and watching,

strolling, on fine days, the grounds of the park, the arboretum,

or sitting on benches in front of the public library,

feeding pigeons out of a paper bag?

We were correct, and yet desire pursued us.

Like a great force, a god. And the young

were offended, their hearts 

turned cold in reaction. We asked

so little of the world; small things seemed to us

immense wealth. Merely to smell once more the early roses

in the arboretum: we asked

so little, and we claimed nothing. And the young

withered nevertheless.

Or they became like the stones in the arboretum: as though

our continued existence, our asking so little for so many years, meant

we asked everything.

– Louise Glück (2001)

Visual Relics (1926-1928)

Horst von Harbou
Crowd in Workers' City
(film production)
1926
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Man Ray
Arnold Schoenberg
1927
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugene Robert Richee
Louise Brooks
1927
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Elisabeth Hase
Self Portrait
ca. 1927
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Albert Renger-Patzsch
Untitled
ca. 1927
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Albert Renger-Patzsch
Aegidienkirche, Lübeck
1927
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Albert Renger-Patzsch
Cyclamen
ca. 1927
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Imogen Cunningham
Black and White Lilies III
ca. 1928
gelatin silver print
Cleveland Museum of Art

Karl Blossfeldt
Achillea Umbellata
ca. 1928
photogravure
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Karl Blossfeldt
Cornus Nuttallii and Cornus Florida
ca. 1928
photogravure
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Karl Blossfeldt
Saxifraga Willkommiana
ca. 1928
photogravure
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Walker Evans
Portrait of Paul Grotz
ca. 1928
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Lotte Stam-Beese
Albert Braun with Mirror
ca. 1928
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Edward Steichen
Lupe Velez, Hollywood
1928
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Edward Steichen
Greta Garbo
1928
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

George Hoyningen Huene
Beachwear by Elsa Schiaparelli
(fashion shot for British Vogue)
1928
gelatin silver print
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

It Is a Living Coral

a trouble

archaically fettered

to produce

E Pluribus Unum an

island

in the sea a Capitol

surmounted

by Armed Liberty –

painting

sculpture straddled by

a dome

eight million pounds

in weight

iron plates constructed

to expand

and contract with

variations

of temperature

the folding

and unfolding of a lily.

And Congress

authorized and the 

Commission

was entrusted was

entrusted!

a sculptured group

Mars

in Roman mail placing

a wreath

of laurel on the brow

of Washington

Commerce Minerva

Thomas

Jefferson John Hancock

at

the table Mrs. Motte

presenting

Indian burning arrows 

to Generals

Marion and Lee to fire

her mansion

and dislodge the British –

this scaleless

jumble is superb

and accurate in its

expression

of the thing they 

would destroy –

Baptism of Poca-

hontas

with a little card

hanging

under it to tell

the persons

in the picture.

It climbs

it runs, it is Geo.

Shoup

of Idaho it wears

a beard

it fetches naked

Indian

women from a river

Trumbull

Varnum Henderson

Frances

Willard's corset is

absurd –

Banks White Columbus

stretched

in bed men felling trees

The Hon. Michael

C. Kerr

onetime Speaker of

the House

of Representatives

Perry

in a rowboat on Lake

Erie

changing ships the

dead

among the wreckage

sickly green

– William Carlos Williams (1924)