The Romantic Violin

 

"Romantic" is one of those many adjectives applied to music that has become a cliche from overuse. It comes from the special powers of music to tame the wild beasts; provoke heroic patriotism, or enchant amorous lovers—hence the notion of romantic melodies that seduce the passions.

 

Once upon a time, in artwork of the musical arts, the word was applied to imagery of one particular instrumentalist—the romantic violinist. As my collection has expanded to include early postcard artists, I've noticed how violin players were once depicted in a very fanciful way. These imaginary violinists were pictured as sentimental dreamers, musicians so intent on their music making that they aroused passionate feelings. In this example a young woman in a puffy white gown seems so absorbed at playing her violin that she has conjured up ghosts of an orchestra and a swirling fairy who guides her fingers and bow. 

The picture on the postcard is actually cropped from a larger and more extravagantly romantic painting.

 

John Gulich (1864–1898) - A Violin Concert, 1898
Source: Tate Museum

The original is a watercolor, 35 x 30 inches, by John Gulich (1864–1898) entitled "A Violin Concert" (1898). In the full view the beautiful woman's gown has a ridiculous train that looks easily 10 feet long and completely covers her feet. Rose blossoms are strewn before her on the stage floor. She stands in the cello section of an orchestra that sits behind her, oddly placing the violin sections on at least six risers. A gauzy red-headed blue fairy seems ready to possess the soloist.   
 

In my experience as a professional orchestral musician, I have never seen any female concert artist in the classical genre perform so lavishly dressed, much less covered in misty fairy dust.

 

The postcard was send by a German soldier using the military Feldpost system on 14 October 1917. Curiously this painting by a British artist was noted on the back in English and Russian and printed by a publisher in Prague, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

 

 

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My second example of a romantic violinist is pictured standing on a grassy knoll overlooking a pastoral vale. In the background dark storm clouds threaten rain and dreamy NSFW naked sirens. The violinist tries his best to ignore them.   

He wears a long black frock coat and resembles the celebrated Czech violin soloist, Jan Kubelik (1880–1940), who I featured back in March 2019 in my story entitled, The Famous Twins. This is probably not a coincidence as the artist was also Czech. His name and the title of the work is printed in English and Russian on the back of the postcard:  Nejedlý: Inspiration.  The postcard was sent on 14 March 1916 to a Wohlgeboren ~ Wellborn Fräulein Mizzi Handl of Mürzzuschlag, Austria.

 

 

 

 

The artist's full name was Otakar Nejedlý (1883–1957). He was born in Roudnice, a small town on the Elbe river, now in the Czech Republic but then part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. Nejedlý studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and later became a teacher there. Most of his work seems to follow an impressionist landscape style like this example of his painting from 1917.

 

 

Otakar Nejedlý, (1883 - 1957)
Czech landscape, 1917
Source: MutualArt.com

 

 

 

 

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The next portrait shows a young man playing a fiddle as he leans on the doorway of a farmhouse as in the background are plowed fields. He is dressed a long white frock coat marked with red ribbons or handkerchiefs and tall riding boots. It's not what I would call the work clothes of a farmer. The postcard comes with a printed poem in the Polish language.

Hej skrzypeczki, skrzypeczki!     Hey violinists, violinists!
Lubię wasze piosneczki                I like your songs
Dźwieki wasze tak tkliwe.            Your sounds are so tender.
Że śpiewacie jak żywe.                 That you sing alive.

 Dorfskünstler — Vesnicky uměleč  ~  Village artist

 

Next to the lines is the name T. Korpal, which I believe refers to the artist who titled his painting as Dorfskünstler, i.e. "Village Artist" in German. 

 

 

 Tadeusz Korpal (1889–1977)
Near by the Water, circa 1937
Source: MutualArt.com

Tadeusz Korpal was a Polish artist who was born in 1889 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. During the Nazi occupation of Krakow in WW2 he was arrested and imprisoned. Korpal survived and after the war taught drawing at a school in Wieliczka. This landscape of a Polish marshland is an example of his work and is entitled Near by the Water, dating from about 1937. He died in 1977.

The postcard was printed in Krakow, Poland and has a postmark from Krakow dated 4 September 1916. During much of the 19th century until 1918, Krakow was part of the Austria-Hungary empire.

 

 

 

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My last example of romantic violin art is a postcard of another young woman stretching her bow arm to reach a low note on her instrument. She wears a bright pink gown with loose sleeves and tight waist. She is focused on a music stand in front of her. The caption reads: Home, Sweet Home.

 

The publisher of the card is The Knapp Co. Inc. of N.Y. and the artist's signature reads F. Earl Christy. 

 

Puck magazine, cover art by F. Earl Christy
7 November 1914
Source: LOC.gov

Frederick Earl Christy (1882–1961) was an American artist born in Philadelphia. He began a long career in commercial art at age 17, working for the Boardwalk Atlantic City Picture company. Christy went on illustrate many magazine covers including; Dell Publishing Company for Modern Romances, Modern Screen and Radio Stars, Ainslee's magazine, American Magazine, Sunday Magazine of the New York Times, Collier's, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Liberty Magazine, McClure's Photoplay Magazine, and Puck Magazine. In this example of his artwork a woman dressed in a kind of clown costume rests on checked cushions with puck toy. It appeared on the cover of the November 7, 1914 edition of Puck magazine. The caption reads: "Some-Body Home".

Though the postcard was clearly an American card, it was postmarked 14 June 1915 from Stow-on-the-Wold, England, a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire. The recipient was Miss E. Borgeaud of Lausanne, Switzerland. The message was written in French.

 

 

 

Another of F. Earl Christy's Puck covers, which ran on the 17 October 1914 edition, a few weeks earlier than the other one, has a title "Nobody Home". This suggests the artist was following a theme that included the pretty young lady violinist too. 

Puck magazine, cover art by F. Earl Christy
17 October 1914
Source: LOC.gov

Early photographers were constrained by a camera technology that limited images to sepia and grey tones. Photographs in real color were impossible as were photos of subjects in motion or against distant horizons. Artists, however, did not have those problems. They worked in a medium constrained only by their imagination. Talented illustrators like Christy created imagery that instantly conveyed an unspoken idea, a heartfelt emotion, or just a nostalgic tone that captured the public's attention and sold...whatever the artist was paid to sell.

 

The violin is a very versatile instrument capable of playing a full range of musical styles. But artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw (and I suppose heard too) that a violin player represented the most expressive romance of musical passions. No one ever painted pictures of a dreamy trombonist standing in a field, or a wild-eyed clarinetist batting away shadowy goblins. It was always the romantic violinist who became the ideal of musical devotion. 

 

I have more of this musical artwork in my collection,
so stay tuned for a sequel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where you never know what might turn up.