The Romantic Strings, the Children Edition

 

Parents recognize that face.
That wonderful moment when a child
discovers that their talent is its own reward.  

Their enthusiasm builds on itself.
An amusement becomes an obsession
as each new skill inspires
a determination to learn more.  

It starts in that innocent time of childhood
when everything is a wonder.

And as parents and grandparents know
it first starts with questions.
Many, many questions
about the world,
about how things work,

about the infinite possibilities of life.

Today I present examples 
of antique picture postcards
that have a musical theme
of romantic string instruments
and also depict children.
 

My first postcard is a drawing in sepia tone of a youth in his nightshirt sitting on the edge of his bed and playing a violin. His expression is one of bright fixation on his music making. In the background is a woman, perhaps his mother, watching with clasped hands. Scattered on the floor are some pages of music. A picture of an organist at a keyboard, perhaps Johann Sebastian Bach, hands on the boy's bedroom wall.    

The title of the picture is Genesung~Recovery. The artist is identified in the lower right corner, both in the etching and printed on the sidebar, as Toby E. Rosenthal. His full name was Tobias Edward Rosenthal (1848–1917), a German artist born in Strasburg in Westpreußen, a place once part of Prussia which later became part of Germany. It is now called Brodnica and is a town in northern Poland. At a young age Rosenthal's parents emigrated to America, settling in San Francisco where Rosenthal received his first art training from a French-born sculptor and an expatriate Mexican artist.  

Rosenthal's postcard of a young violinist abed has a brief greeting on the back but was never posted. The publisher was Hermann A. Wiechmann of München~Munich, Germany. The style of the printing suggestions a date of 1915-1925.

Rosenthal's tutors in California recognized his natural talent for drawing and recommended to his parents that he travel back to Germany for further art study. In 1865 he enrolled in Munich's Academy of Fine Arts. By age 22 he won a prize medal for an imaginative painting of Bach's family at morning prayers. It was considered worthy enough to be acquired by the State Museum in Leipzig. 

Morning prayers in the Bach family
by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870
Source: Wikimedia

I found two versions of this painting on the internet. Above is an image from Wikimedia which I presume is Rosenthal's original painting in color. It shows the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) at home seated at a harpsichord with his lively family gathered around. Johann was married twice, first to Maria Barbara Bach (1684–1720) with whom he had seven children including three who died in infancy, and then Anna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke (1701–1760) who gave him thirteen children including seven who died before reaching adulthood. 

There are eleven figures in the scene which includes a baby's cradle. I count six who are clearly not adults. According to the Wikipedia entry for Anna Magdalena Bach, "Only during the ten weeks from June to August 1732 were five of the couple’s children younger than 10 years of age living in the household."  It seems very likely that Rosenthal is depicting this Bach family of 1732.

Morning prayers in the Bach family
by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870
Source: Wikimedia

The second version of Rosenthal's painting is an engraving made for an American book published in 1914. The engraver has reproduced Rosenthal's work very accurately, preserving all the animation of the original family scene. But their faces have more fine detail and I think the sepia tone picture is much more convincing as a work of art. 

Though he made a few return visits to America, Rosenthal made his career in Munich, Germany producing many paintings inspired by great writers of his time. His style followed the German Romantic movement which depicted historic events and nostalgic folk characters. 

This next drawing by Rosenthal was made in 1907. It is similar to the young violinist because this sketch shows another youth enthralled by his craft. Here an older boy concentrates on carving a small wooden figurine of Christ's Crucifixion. It's a sculpting skill which Rosenthal as an artist was likely very familiar with. 

Study of a Boy Carving a Crucifix
drawing by Toby E. Rosenthal, 1907
Source: Wikimedia 

* * *

My next postcard is a portrait of another young violinist engrossed in the sound of his instrument. This boy has wavy red hair not unlike his violin and wears a blue-green jacket with a wide white collar. It's a thoughtful pose that invites us to admire the boy's focus on his music.  

This artist's name is signed in the lower right corner and printed on the back. He is Albert Louis Aublet (1851–1938) a French painter born in Paris. Aublet's first Paris exhibition was in 1873. He traveled to the Middle East in the 1880s where his experience in Istanbul inspired him to develop an "Orientalist" style by painting exotic subjects and themes. He also produced a number of genre paintings and female nudes.     

This postcard was sent from Bern, Switzerland on 9 May 1918. The painting's title is printed on the back: le jeune vilon~The young violinist. It was printed in Paris.

Bathing Time at Le Tréport
painting by Albert Aublet, 1885
Source: Wikimedia

Wikimedia offered a several examples of Albert Aublet's work. This summer scene shows a crowd enjoying a stony beach at Le Tréport, a port town in Normandy, France. The swirl of women's umbrellas adds more movement than we would see on a modern beach.

French artist, Albert Aublet (1851–1938)
in his studio, photograph, date unknown
Source: Wikimedia

Another image from Wikimedia is a photo of Albert Aublet working at his studio in Paris. The date is unknown but judging from his appearance it likely late 1890s or 1900s. Remember to click any image to enlarge it. 

* * *

 

This next postcard shows a lovely father/daughter moment when a cellist plays for his little girl. She wears a golden gown and pulls her dress out as she marvels at this grown-up costume. Music is scattered on the floor by the man's chair. His concentration is, of course, focused not on his cello but on his child. 

The title of this painting is Chaconne, a Spanish dance form from the Baroque era involving variations over a repeated bass line. The artist's name, written in the lower corner of the painting and printed on the sidebar, is John Quincy Adams. 

Despite his American-sounding name, John Quincy Adams (1873–1933) was actually Austrian. He was the son of American tenor Charles Runey Adams (1834-1900) and Hungarian singer Nina Bleyer (1835-1899) who both sang in the company of the the Vienna Court Opera. Their son was named after the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), but there was no direct family connection. In 1879 the family moved back to Boston but when his parents separated in 1887 Adams returned to Vienna with his mother. He studied art at the Wien Academy of Fine Arts from 1892-1896, followed by a year of artistic training at the Munich Academy and another year in Paris at the Académie Julian.

This postcard was never used but I present the back for its beautiful floral border. The publisher was B.K.W.I. or Brüder Kohn Wien I, one of the most successful postcard companies in Vienna and Europe. This is the same publisher that produced the postcards of my favorite artist Fritz Schönpflug (1873 – 1951). Since he and Adams were contemporaries I expect they must have known each other. 

Kitty Baronin Rothschild
painting by John Quincy Adams, 1916
Source: Wikimedia

According to a biography of Adams, he produced around 500 paintings in a large variety of genres with different subjects and styles. Nonetheless his main work earned Adams a cliché as "painter of the beautiful, elegant Viennese lady". One example is this portrait of Kitty Rothschild (1885–1946), an American socialite who was considered by noted Parisian dress designers as one of the world's ten best-dressed women. Born in Philadelphia, as a young woman she studied music in Munich, where she met and then eloped with Dandridge Spotswood, a industrial and mining engineer from New York with a Virginian ancestry. For a time the young couple resided in New York but the marriage did not last and they divorced.

In 1911 Kitty married an Austrian nobleman, Count Erwin Schoenborn, from an ancient noble family of the Holy Roman Empire. This painting was made in 1916 when they were still together as in 1924 they divorced. I don't know who got the dog. That same year Kitty married Baron Eugène Daniel von Rothschild (1884–1976), a member of the notable Rothschild family. The Rothschild's made their home in Paris and became prominent in continental European society until the start of World War Two. 

 

Kaiser Franz Joseph I
painting by John Quincy Adams, 1914
Source: Wikimedia

It is this portrait of Austria's Kaiser Franz Joseph I by John Quincy Adams that I find most interesting. It was completed in 1914 when Franz Joseph was 84 and shows a man bowed down by the weight of 66 years as monarch. What I don't know is if the portrait was finished before or after 28 June 1914 when his nephew and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian terrorists. This terrible murder of the Archduke and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, triggered the start of World War One. Franz Joseph would die two years later on 21 November 1916. 

* * *

My last picture postcard is another drawing that shows a small boy crouched behind an elderly cello player, presumably the boy's grandfather, who sits on a rustic stool. He grins with delight as he watches the bow race over the instrument's strings. Grandfather is bearded, barefoot, and dressed in shabby clothing. He smokes a long pipe as he looks directly at us. A violin hangs on the wall. He resembles characters in antique illustrations of Gypsy fiddlers that I have featured on another post, A Fiddler on the Street. 

There is a long message on the front around the drawing (more about that in a minute) and on the back is Kaiser Franz Joseph's picture in profile on a green 5 heller postage stamp. The stamp dates from 1908 in celebration of the Kaiser's 60th year as king and emperor. It was sent from Zadar, a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, to an Oberleutnant~First Lieutenant Peteani in Dalmatia. The postmark date is illegible, but 1908-1910 seems reasonable.   

The artist of this little drawing signed his name in the lower corner: Valentini, 1882 but there is no other identification. After a hunt, I believe this was Valentino Valentini, (1858–?) an Italian artist who was born in Florence, Italy. Nothing much about his life is recorded on the internet but I did succeed in finding enough examples of his work to show that he understood musicians and musical instruments. 

Monk Musician
painting by Valentino Valentini, 1882
Source: MutualArt.com 

This painting by Valentini recently sold at auction. It shows a bearded monk playing a double bass. The monk stands in front of a heavy wooden music stand suitable for two players or even four. Scattered on the floor are more pages of music which seems to be a popular cliché to use when depicting earnest musicians. This painting is dated 1882 like the drawing so maybe the bearded man modeled for the cellist too.  

The Accordion Player
painting by Valentino Valentini
Source: MutualArt.com

This painting by Valentino Valentini shows a humble accordion player scanning the room or street in order to catch the eye of someone who will drop a few coins at his feet. It's a nice portrait of a folk musician as typical of Italy today as it was in the 19th century.   

* * *

Today in the 21st century we look at countless photographs and videos of people doing all sorts of things while expressing every kind of emotion. They are now so common that we forget how incredibly difficult it once was to capture a special moment on film. Just as they do today, people in the past smiled, laughed, cried, and hollered. But early photographers had to be very skilled, and lucky, too, to record those fleeting memories on film. 

Artists, on the other hand, have always relied on just a good eye and a deft hand to draw those human moments. With a good imagination and a familiar understanding of facial features, an artist can recreate an experience like love, joy, sadness, or anger that is instantly understood by any person, regardless of their language or point in time. It's that mastery of art which I think enhances our appreciation of this era when a picture postcard of a musician was more than just a pretty image. Sure they were sentimental and designed to charm, but they also validate the wonder of music in people's lives. 

  Coda  

The German handwriting on this last postcard's message was made with a fountain pen and was consistent enough for me to recognize most of the letters if not the full words. For an experiment I removed the picture, increased the contrast, and rearranged the second part of the message into just a clear image of the script. I then uploaded it to three different AI services: ChatGpt, Perplexity, and Claude, giving each the same instruction: "Transcribe this handwritten German message from a 1910 Austrian postcard and translate it into English."

All three came up with pretty good equivalents for the German handwriting catching most umlauts, often written as just a dash over a vowel instead of '', and noting the funny German character ß for ss. Of the three, Claude was the most accurate. It produced this transcription:

Original: 

                    Lieber Harry! Nachdem mein Gagenzettel größer ausgefallen 

                als ich gedacht habe und etwas so noch hatte, habe ich mich
                entschlossen nach Hause zu fahren. Fahre am 3/9 um 8h früh weg.
                Werde niemandem sagen, dass du kommst, auch ich 
                werde momentan erscheinen. Almuier (?) wird 
                wahrscheinlich mit dir hinauffahren. Habe mich bezüglich deines
                Urlaubs erkundigt, da wurde mir gesagt vom...

                * 1–4 habt ihr Trainübungen und dann 
                    kannst du fahren, wenn es dir unten vom Kader 
                    bewilligt wird. Auf Wiedersehen recht 
                    bald. Mit Gruß und Kuss Karl.

Translation:

                         Dear Harry! Since my pay slip turned out larger 

                    than I had expected and I still had something left over, I have 

                    decided to travel home. I am leaving on the 3rd of September
                                at 8 o'clock in the morning. 

                    I will not tell anyone that you are coming, and I myself
                    will appear for the time being. Almuier (?) will probably travel up 
                    with you. I inquired regarding your vacation, and I was told by...

                    * From the 1st to the 4th you have training exercises, and then 

                        you can travel if it is approved for you 

                        down at headquarters. See you again quite soon. 

                        With greetings and a kiss, Karl.

All three AI websites offer a free service and were very quick, producing a neat transcription and translation in 15-25 seconds. The key for using this tool is to prepare the image carefully so that there is nothing except the script for the AI engine to analyze. I'm very impressed that it correctly found letters that I would not have guessed because it recognized the context and the typical syntax of a message written in German. I'm eager to try it with other languages.  

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where feather bolsters are on sale all weekend.