Invitation to the Dance 2

 

Hear that beat? Then move your feet! That's the basis for any dance form. But a dance can also be a form of display, a pageant of fashion and beauty. That's what this postcard shows in a drawing of an elegant couple dressed in clothing from the late 18th century. A gentleman wearing breeches, justacorps coat, and powdered wig leads a young woman in a huge gown as she swirls around for all to see. Is this couple taking a turn in a minuet?

Here is an example of a minuet performed in period costumes. A minuet was originally a French social dance for two people, usually written in a triple 3 beat time signature. 

The artist is Ferdinand von Řezníček (1868–1909) whose work I first shared on this blog back in January in Invitation to the Dance. Though born in a district of Wien, Austria, Reznicek studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in München, Bavaria, initially focusing on landscape art. But after his graduation he chose to remain in München finding work as a commercial artist for several German society magazines that were published there. In 1895 Reznicek joined a new satirical magazine called Simplicissimus where his drawings helped to make it a success across Germany and Austria. This postcard was part of a series published by the magazine and sold to the public beginning in about 1905.

 Simplicissimus
1 August 1905
Source: The Internets

This card was sent to Frau M. v. Eye of Berlin. The postmark is unclear but, as you will see, it was likely sent sometime around 1907-08.

* * *

The couple on this second card are from several decades later, perhaps, I think, the 1870s to judge by the bustle and hats. A young woman in a large hooped dress and blue bonnet gazes into the eyes of her beau who wears plaid trousers, suit coat, and a tall 3-liter top hat (fittingly called a Zylinder in German.) The way that they clutch each other looks like acceptable dance etiquette to me, but maybe she just tripped on her hem.  

Perhaps they are dancing a Zwiefacher, a southern German folk dance popular in Bavaria. It is characterized by a quick tempo and changing beat patterns that alternate between odd and even time signatures, changing from three to two beats per bar. Here is an example with a tune called "Alte Kath".

The front of the card has a handwritten date confirmed by the postmark of 22 February 1908. As with the previous card it was sent to Frau M. v. Eye. of Berlin. Her full address says "Berlin Halensee, Westfälische Str. 40/IV" which is a neighborhood in the the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, west of Berlin's city center.

 

Frau v. Eye's address in Berlin is still a residential and shopping area, though very much improved 120 years later.

40 Westfälische Str. Berlin
The entry door is next to the sign for Chang Thai massage

* * *

This couple are really stepping out with best foot forward. The gentleman is in tight breeches and a trim tailcoat without hat. His partner wears a light blue gown with several frilly layers but with much less fabric and undercarriage than the previous ladies' costumes.  

I think they may resemble a dance called the German Cotillion fashionable in the mid-19th century. The Cotillion originally was set for four couples in square formation, it followed a courtly version of an English country dance, the forerunner of the quadrille, which became the square dance in America. The German version of the Cotillion involved more couples and was a popular balls dance. Here is an example of which has dancers doing lively steps similar to the couple in the drawing.

This postcard was also sent to Frau M. von Eye of Berlin. It is dated 24 April 1907 on the front message and this time the sender included his name—Alfred. 

I featured two of Reznicek's postcards sent by Alfred in my first story, Invitation to the Dance, and I have two more which I will save for another story on Reznicek's artwork. Clearly he bought a packet of this series and enjoyed sending them to Frau von Eye. I suspect he was her husband, but he might easily be her son, brother, or something else as the handwriting is so wrinkled that I am unable to decipher it to determine their relationship. 

* * *

This last couple are entwined so closely that I feel sure it must be a dance closer to 1900 than 1800. The gentleman is in formal white tie and tails and the woman has on an elaborate gown with an enormous feathered hat. Reznicek clearly attended many society balls and dance halls to sketch so many variations on steps and positions. 

The couple's posture and animation suggests to me a lively two-step dance like a polka. Here is an example, courtesy of YouTuber Jason Anderson, of a fast polka during the 2019 Ball der Pharmacie (Pharmacy Ball) in the Vienna Hofburg. Music: Tritsch Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss Jr. 

This postcard was actually sent from Salzburg, Austria but the postmark on Kaiser Franz Joseph's stamp is faded. Like the other postcards it likely dates from 1907-08. 

I am not an expert on historical German terpsichore so the previous video examples are just my own left-footed amateur interpretations of Reznicek's dancers. I welcome any alternate suggestions or corrections.

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 Simplicissimus
March 1905
Source: The Internets

My final Reznicek drawing of dancers is taken from a full page caricature used in the special Carnival edition of Simplicissimus from March 1905. I used it in my previous story on his artwork but at the time I did not research the cartoon's title and caption. I thought it was just a silly lampoon of a short man embracing a taller woman. This week I consulted my A.I. assistant Claude and asked him to translate the caption. 

„Sehgn S', döß hab' i glei g'sehgn, daß Sie a Preiß san.
Döß macht aber nix, wenn S' nur sonst an ordentlicher Mensch san!"

~
"You see, I could tell right away that you're a Prussian.
But that doesn't matter, as long as you're otherwise a decent person!"

Claude also gave me such a detailed description of the historical and political context of this illustration that I include it here as a demonstration of how the new Artificial Intelligence systems can help researchers like myself. There is more to this couple's dance than meets our eyes 121 years later.  

Claude:  This is a classic piece of Bavarian/Austrian humor. The dialect is distinctly Bavarian (note the phonetic spellings: "sehgn" for sehen, "döß" for das, "san" for sind, "nix" for nichts), and the joke hinges on the traditional rivalry and mild contempt Bavarians and Austrians held toward Prussians (North Germans). The title of the illustration is "Verbrüderung" — Brotherhood or Fraternization — which adds an ironic twist: the two are literally dancing in close embrace while the Bavarian woman offers this backhanded compliment to her Prussian partner. The humor is in the condescension wrapped in apparent goodwill.

The Bavarian dialect is quite thick here, which really does enrich the joke. Simplicissimus was a satirical Munich magazine, so Bavarian dialect humor appeared regularly in its pages — and poking fun at Prussians was practically a recurring sport for them.

The timing is also worth noting: 1905 puts this about 35 years after Bismarck's unification of Germany under Prussian dominance, a political reality that many Bavarians had never fully warmed to. The Kingdom of Bavaria had only reluctantly joined the German Empire in 1871, and cultural resentment toward the Prussian north lingered well into the 20th century. So this cartoon is tapping into something readers would have immediately recognized and enjoyed.

The title "Verbrüderung" makes it even sharper — it was a word associated with grand gestures of political and national solidarity, here deflated into a tipsy waltz and a gloriously patronizing compliment. Very much in the spirit of Simplicissimus, which delighted in puncturing pretension from all directions.

I can't resist adding one last video
of arguably the most celebrated dance couple of all time.
Here is the classic “Pick Yourself Up”
from the 1936 film Swing Time,
featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where Aunty Miriam and Uncle Frank
could do a turn or two.