This is a blog about music, photography, history, and culture.
These are photographs from my collection that tell a story about lost time and forgotten music.

Mike Brubaker
{ Click on the image to expand the photo }

Don't Forget to Write!

03 April 2020


There are weekends
when I know that I have the perfect photo
to feature on my blog.

If only I can remember which album it's in.









Then comes the hard part—
writing something original
and still appropriate for the pictures I've chosen.
Should I be witty or factual?
Clever or serious?

Does anyone really care?
It's not like I'm writing a dissertation
with a thousand footnotes.







Lot's of times
I've got nothing
and have to stare at the images
for inspiration or just motivation.
Is there's some little detail I've missed?
Did I get all the dates correct?

Maybe I should skip this weekend.








But if I can get beyond the first few paragraphs
the words fly off my keyboard.
It's really like making music.
Once the tune is moving,
the harmony joins in,
and the rhythm sets the groove.

That's when I know I've found
the joy of sharing
these beautiful images with the world.








This weekend I present four postcards
by the Austrian artist, Hermann Torggler, (1878-1939).
I've featured his etchings of charming young women before
in The Girls of Austrian Postcards,
Up, Up, and Away!,
Ein schönes Mädchen,
and To Your Health!






* * *






The first postcard etching by Herr Torggler
is entitled:
Kartensammlerin
~
Card collector.


A beautiful young woman
wearing an elegant housedress
stands in her drawing room
at the very moment she is about to open
her postcard album for us.

This postcard was sent from
Leipzig, Germnany
on 25 September 1899
to Fräulein Elly Naumann
of Königsberg.









* * *






The second postcard etching
is captioned:
Schreibe bald wieder!
~
Write again soon!

A young lady ponders over
what she will write in a letter
as she sits at a table with a quill pen in hand.

This was posted on 1 May 1900
from Rosa of Nuremberg
to Fräulein  Kathche Klein of Vorra, Bavaria.







* * *





The third postcard is entitled
Gendenke mein !
~
Remember mine !


Another young woman sits in a chair
contemplating a small framed photo or painting
that is on a table before her.
 
I used another copy of this card
in The Girls of Austrian Postcards,

but this one has been softly tinted with colored pencil
with perhaps a bit too much attention made to the eyebrows.

The postcard was sent
via the Bavarian Postal Service
from Moosburg to Kemnath
on 20 November 1901.









* * *





The last postcard is simply entitled
with the Italian musical term:
Scherzo
~
Jest

The same girl as in the first postcard
is out in a garden
about to serenade us with a springtime song
and accompanying herself on a four string cittern.

Extra points if you can spot the artist's signature.

This card was posted
from Wiesbaden to Charlottenburg
on 12 May 1902.





The charm and delight
of Torrgler's beautiful artwork is timeless.
Looking at them transports me
from the troubled present
back to another time and place
that's seems blissfully calm and serene.
I hope his postcards may bring my readers

some cheer in this time of great anxiety.





This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where a good book is always your best friend.

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2020/04/sepia-saturday-514-4-april-2020.html



5 comments:

Virginia Allain said...

I loved all these pictures!

Molly of Molly's Canopy said...

These cards do indeed provide moments of peace in an uncertain world. The artist is quite skilled in his renditions. In some ways I like the non-colorized version of that contemplative woman better because the detailed lines are more visible. Hope you and yours are safe and well -- and may our blogs give readers brief moments of transport as we shelter in place.

Barbara Rogers said...

Thanks for sharing some postal art...having the skill to draw a person realistically, and then design the cards with all the accoutrements, shows a real artist's talent. Of course they are somewhat "designed" rather than portraiture. But artists made their living by doing such work, and I salute Mr. Torggler.

Wendy said...

My fav is #2 - the look on her face! I am sure that is how I look staring at the computer trying to think of something to say.

La Nightingail said...

And beautifully sketched postcards they are, too! :)

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