The Hidden Psyche of Great Men

 

A face is in profile
but is layered with other images.
It's a kind of photo portrait,
and yet there is more than meets the eye.

The person's features are recognizable
but within it is a fantastic specter
of other people and creatures.

Similar portraits are even odder
as if the collage was made
from too many unrelated things. 

Other portraits add a texture of drawings
almost like tattoos or transparent imagery
projected onto the face.

The artists trick the viewer into seeing an illusion
of more than just a picture of a famous person.
Their portraits also show symbols of their creations,
accomplishments, and ambitions.  

Today I present four examples of postcards from the 1900s
that used a composite metamorphic style of art
to celebrate famous people.

  

The first postcard is of German composer and conductor Richard Wagner (1813–1883) who is remembered for his many music dramas that transformed music and opera theater in the 19th century, notably for his four-part cycle: "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelung). Here his face appears in profile but his head is filled with characters from his operas. 

Visible in his "hair" are two swans which are birds that appear in Wagner's "Lohengrin". The central character, Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail and son of Parsifal, travels in a boat drawn by white swan. The helmeted warrior woman in the upper portion holds a spear which connects to "Die Walküre" from the Ring Cycle. The sinuous female figures are the Rhine Maidens from "Das Rheingold" guarding the river gold. On the chin is a serpent figure which is the dragon Fafner from "Das Rheingold" or "Siegfried".   

Below the picture is a facsimile of Richard Wagner's signature and a four bar motif which is a bit of a puzzle that I have not solved. I think it's a phrase from Lohengrin but I haven't identified it yet. The tiny caption in the corner, "depose dans tous les pais" is a French trademark notice meaning "registered in all countries." Presumably this kind of art was produced in France. 

Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
Elliott & Fry studio, London, circa 1877
Source: Wikimedia

The best photo to match this illustration of Richard Wagner is a profile head shot taken at the Elliot & Fry studio in London in about 1877. The postcard was sent on 29 June 1909 from Meinersdorf, a small village in Saxony near Chemnitz. 

* * *

This second disembodied head might be unfamiliar as this man lived in the time before photography and his few portraits are paintings. The card's caption is a single word, a signature really:   Goethe.  

Most Germans in our time would recognize this name, if not the image, as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), considered Germany's greatest author and a polymath in many subjects. His works include plays, poetry, and aesthetic criticism, as well as scientific treatises on botany, anatomy, and color.  

The imagery that covers his visage includes a horse and rider who carries a child. This refers to Goethe's 1782 ballad poem "Erlkönig" which depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlkönig, a king of the fairies. Many composers set the poem to music, but the most famous is a song by Franz Schubert. 

The sylph-like beings in the upper hair refer to Goethe's major 2-part tragedy,  "Faust I & II". This tragic story is about a scholar, Faust, who makes a pact with the devil (Mephistopheles) for unlimited knowledge and experience. Faust is depicted on the left eye with Mephistopheles at his shoulder. His love interest is young Gretchen, who is drawn onto Goethe's nose. 

The two figures on the right eye and cheek are from another famous ballad of Goethe's,. "Der Fischer"~ "The Fisherman". Written in 1779, this song tells a tale of a water-maiden (mermaid) who rises from the Rhine, seducing a fisherman with her song and then pulling him into the water until he is never seen again.  

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
1828 portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler (1781–1858)
Source: Wikimedia 

This painting of Goethe by Joseph Karl Stieler is perhaps the most well-known image of the writer and was likely used by the anonymous artist as a model for this metamorphose. This postcard has a postmark of 6 August 1909 from Marienbad, a renowned spa town in Austria which is now in the Czech Republic, and two more postmarks from Geneve and Lausanne. Switzerland. 

* * *

This next figure a bit more challenging, but clues are hidden in the man's white hat. Two very long airships and a balloon make up the cap and more blimps and balloons fill the face. A caption on the top reads: 

Unsere Zukunft liegt in der Luft. 
~
Our future lies in the air.

It is, of course, the great aviator of lighter-than-air flying machines, Graf~Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917). Regular readers should recognize his name if not his face and I have posted many stories on Graf Zeppelin's airships. In his time Zeppelin mastered the art of self-promotion as well as flight and his grandfatherly face made him a familiar luminary in German newspapers, magazines, and postcards, too.  

Graf von Zeppelin (1838–1917), circa 1911
Source: Wikimedia

This photo of Graf Zeppelin was likely taken around the time when his airships were achieving longer flight records and capturing the attention of the public in Germany and abroad. He seems to have adopted a type of ship captain's hat, one in white, like this one, and another in dark blue. It doesn't take much imagination to see balloons in his cheeks and mustache. 

This postcard was sent from Berlin on 28 May 1909. 

* * *

My final metamorphose postcard is possibly one of the most recognized public figures of his time as this man appeared in countless postcards. He is Wilhelm II (1859–1941), the last German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) from 1888 until his abdication in 1918. His face is almost tattooed with symbols of German nationalism. There are two imperial eagles, one grasps a map of Europe in its talons. A helmeted warrior wields a sword. A ship's captain, presumably Wilhelm, grapples with a ship's wheel, the chin, which has a motto: "Deutschland in der Welt Vor..."

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941)
1902 photo by Thomas Heinrich Voigt (1838–1896)
Source: Wikimedia

Wihelm may have been the most photographed head-of-state in his time. There seem to be an infinite number of him in many different uniforms, some not even German. This photo from 1902 captures an expression similar to that used for the metamorphose sketch. His determined face gazes slightly up and away, a kind of leadership pose that Wilhelm perfected. 

What made this metamorphose postcard more special though was the handwritten note on the back. 

5. VIII 1914
Zur Erinnerung
an die Mobilmachung
2 August
1914
~
For remembrance
on the mobilization
2 August 1914

Georg Elhing(?)

  

On 28 June 1914, Bosnian-Serb terrorists assassinated the heir presumptive to the imperial throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Their murder set off a chain of events which quickly escalated into a diplomatic crisis. Complicated treaties and secret agreements between major and minor powers in Europe triggered military plans. In July reserve soldiers were called up to join their companies and regiments ordered to move towards their nation's borders. On 2 August 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm gave the command for his armies to mobilize. It was the the first day of The Great War, what we now call World War One. Georg remembered that day with this postcard. 

Did Georg serve in the war? Did he survive? What meaning did Wilhelm's metamorphic imagery have in November 1918? We can only imagine.

The symbolism in these metamorphose portraits are not profound. They are novelty picture puzzles, clever illusions that asks us to find rhymes and reasons. They seem to have originated around 1909 which was also when Sigmund Freud's work began to gain significant recognition in 1908–1910, following the publication of his major works like "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1899/1900) and "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905). As it turns out the psyche of great men can be pretty ordinary and not all that interesting.

I have more metamorphose postcards
like this of other famous men 
and will feature them in a future story. 

I'll finish with a performance 
of Franz Schubert's setting of Goethe's Der Erlkönig.
The singer is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
No one does it better than this.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where someone is always watching.