Invitation to the Dance

  

I was the swirl of motion that first caught my attention. It's a picture of a dancing couple in elegant formal dress. Without background and viewed from above as if seen from a balcony, the artist focuses only on their embrace in a quick moment of a dance turn. It's not the kind of postcard I usually buy but as I explored more of this artist's work I recognized he was depicting a time when formal dancing was the height of sophistication and cultured manners. 

The front of the card has a note and a date:

Tharandt 11/5 08
O! Welche Seligkeit! ~ Oh! What bliss!

Tharandt is a small town in Germany, situated on the Weißeritz River, 13 km (8.1 mi) southwest of Dresden. It is addressed to Frau M. von Eye of Berlin. The note is from Alfred, whom I'm guessing was her husband.

Ferdinand von Řezníček (1868–1909)
Source: Wikimedia

The artist is Ferdinand von Řezníček (1868–1909), a contemporary of Fritz Schönpflug whose work I featured on my blog last weekend. Řezníček was also Austrian, born in Sievering, (now part of Vienna), and the son of General Josef Řezníček and his second wife, Hermine née Conrad. Like many sons, Ferdinand was expected to follow his father and pursue a military career. But after his father's death in 1886, when Ferdinand was just eighteen, he instead followed a passion for art and moved to Munich to study painting. There he became a well-known illustrator for several German satirical magazines.  

 

This second card is a variation on the same theme, showing a different couple in mid-step. The young woman bends backward to smile at us. Both pictures are lightly tinted with color.

The front message is written in a style too difficult for me to translate. The back has a Bavarian postmark from München/Munich dated 22 January 1913. It is addressed to someone in Stuttgart which was the capital of Württemberg, a historical German territory east of Bayern/Bavaria know as the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia.   

Řezníček found his greatest success illustrating for Simplicissimus, a German weekly satirical magazine. It was founded in Munich by Albert Langen in April 1896 shortly after Řezníček became an editorial assistant to Langen. The magazine took its name from a picaresque German novel, Simplicius Simplicissimus, published in 1668 and considered the first adventure novel in the German language. The title Simplicius is the name given to the protagonist who early in the novel was thought so simple that he did not know what his own name was. 

Simplicissimus
March 1905
Source: Internet Archive

Every week Simplicissimus printed stories and essays on current social and political issues in Imperial Germany. The magazine engaged many prominent German writers and artists like Řezníček to give it a modern graphic style that was very different from conservative newspapers and journals. Its front covers poked fun at politicians and military figures with colorful caricatures which made Simplicissimus one of the more influential satirical magazines. 

This cover of a clown carrying a gayly masked woman on his shoulders was produced for a special edition of Simplicissimus celebrating Karnevals or Fasching, the festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Though I'm not certain, I believe the artist is Ferdinand Reznicek, as several of his drawings, like the next one, were in this particular edition. 

Simplicissimus
March 1905
Source: Internet Archive

The Simplicissimus magazine published several collections of Ferdinand Reznicek's artwork in book form and then individually in series of postcards.

This dancing couple have added an energetic drop to their routine. The postcard was also sent to Frau v. Eye of Berlin by, I think, Alfred but a month later on 13 June 1908. 

The acrobatic stance of this couple shows they are clearly having a real good time on the dance floor. The penciled message on the front is too challenging for me but there is a date 3 II 06 which corresponds to the postmark of 4 February 1906 on the back. It was sent from München to Egmating, a small community near München. The card was published by Simplicissimus as Series I, no. 5. Notice that in the corner it is identified as a "Postkarte" in seventeen different langauages.

   

Several characters in Ferdinand Reznicek's drawings wear masks which I assume is connected to fancy dress costumes worn during the carnival season. This was also the winter season for balls which popularized the traditions  of ballroom dancing in Central Europe. 

But as is well known, after the invitation to the dance there are other invitations that can lead to more lascivious activities. This colorful drawing shows a couple in a passionate embrace after a few glasses of Champagne. I don't recognize the dance move but I feel sure that in the music the strings have modulated to a higher key. 

Pictures of dancers were only one theme that Ferdinand Reznicek was skilled at. He also made a lot of artwork for Simplicissimus that was risqué with subtle erotic overtones. This example was originally a drawing in black ink but was reprinted during the war years. This card was sent to a young woman in Wien on 29 January 1916, possibly by a soldier as it has a military overstamp next to Kaiser Franz-Joseph's green stamp. 

Ferdinand Reznicek died in May 1909, but his artwork continued to be reprinted by Simplicissimus. The magazine continued operating during the First Word War and later the Weimar period taking a tough stance against political extremists whether on the left or the right. But as the National Socialist party came to power, the editor of Simplicissimus, a Jew, was forced to resign and flee into exile. The remaining writers and artists turned the magazine into another propaganda rag for the Nazi party until it stopped publication in 1944. It was revived in 1954 but finally closed in 1967.

I have more postcards of Ferdinand Reznicek's artwork
which I plan to use in future stories. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile here are videos that demonstrate the Viennese waltz
which was the dance I believe Ferdinand Reznicek
was depicting in his drawings.
First there is this instructional video 
How-to dance the Viennese Waltz - It Takes Two
from the BBC Strictly Come Dancing show.
The explanation of the dance is terrific
but unfortunately the  accompanying music
is neither a waltz nor remotely Viennese. 

Next is a short video
from the Ball of the Vienna Philharmonic in 2019

And to finish here is a delightful scene
from the Wiener Opernball 2020,
the Galopp nach der Mitternachtsquadrille.
The beautiful trained dancers have left the floor
and now it's a frenzy as every man and woman 
starts kallomping around in time to the music. 

It's not a waltz in three but a gallop in two.

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone bends over backward

to offer the best blogging hospitality.