Molti Ritratti: The "Queen Mum"

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002) is this post's portrait subject. Biographical information is here.

The "Queen Mum" as she was popularly called late in life, lived at a time when photographic portraiture became dominant over painted portraiture. However, due to her royal standing, she was portrayed using oil paints on canvas a number of times.

Some of the images are from the Royal collection and some others are from the National Portrait Gallery and are copyrighted. They are used here to illustrate how various artists chose to portray her over the years, influenced by current artistic fashions and by their own artistic backgrounds.

Gallery

Three photos. The first when she was in her twenties. I am not sure when the second (image cropped) was taken: perhaps in the late 1940s. The third seems to date during the early years of her marriage; I include it because her pose is similar to that in the following image.

By John Singer Sargent - 1923
This drawing was made the same year Elizabeth married Albert, Duke of York, who later unexpectedly became King George VI.

by Reginald Grenville Eves - 1924
This is essentially an oil sketch, though the artist signed it as a finished work. It does not flatter her, in part due to the rough brushwork on her face.

by Philip de Laszlo - HM Queen Elizabeth when Duchess of York - 1925
He was a leading portrait artist, and this is one of his best-known paintings.

by James Quinn - 1930
There seems to be something wrong here having to do with her eyebrows, upper nose, and eyes.

By John Helier Lander - official coronation portrait - 1937
Compared to the two paintings below that were made not long after, it seems that Lander might have shown Elizabeth as looking younger than she was.

By Gerald Kelly - c. 1938
I cropped this image slightly.

By Gerald Kelly - c. 1940
Kelly painted several portraits of her. This has a particularly "official" feeling -- note the crown at the left.

by Stanley Cursiter - 1965
Cursiter was skilled at portraying attractive women, but something went wrong when he depicted her arms.

by Michael Noakes - 1973
This is similar in spirit to 1960s American magazine illustration by the likes of the great Bernie Fuchs. That said, I place this on par with the fine de Laszlo portrait shown above.

by Robert Norman Hepple - 1987
Elizabeth was now in her late eighties, but this somehow doesn't seem quite like her.

Molti Ritratti: Jeanne d'Arc

Now for some portraits of an important historical personage that were all painted posthumously. The subject is Jeanne d'Arc (c.1412-1431), called Joan of Arc in English-speaking countries. Her Wikipedia entry is here.

According to this site, there exists only one contemporary image. It is a "Drawing by Clément de Fauquembergue, the secretary of the Pa[r]lement of Paris. The artist had never seen Jeanne. It is known that she sat for a portrait, but it did not survive, so no exact image of her exists."

That contemporary image is here:

Below are some imagined portraits of her.

Gallery

Miniature - 1450-1500
Her hair style seems to be derived from the previous image.

Anonymous - 1581
This seems fanciful, yet not showing her for what she was famous for.

Atelier Rubens - 1620
From the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - 1854
By a major artist. He too seems to use the hair style in the first image.

John Everett Millais - 1865
By an important English artist.

Jules Bastien-Lepage - Joan of Arc Listening to the Voices - 1879
The well-known Bastien-Lepage painting.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1882
For some reason nearly every Rossetti portrait of a young woman shows similar features.

George William Joy - 1895
Ste Jeanne asleep.

Harold Piffard - c.1895

Donato Giancola - 2012
A recent painting by an American illustrator.

Molti Ritratti: Dejah Thoris

Along with multiple portraits of famous people, now and then I'll present different versions of people for whom there is no photographic evidence or even people who are fictitious. The latter is the subject of this post.

Originally serialized in a magazine, Edgar Rice Burroughs' first story about John Carter of Mars -- "A Princess of Mars" -- eventually appeared in book form using that new title. That princess was Dejah Thoris, who naturally was featured on cover art for the many editions that appeared over the years.

If you do a web search on Dejah and call up images, you will see movie images as well as many cartoon-like illustrations. Those are ignored here. Below are book cover illustrations showing Dejah, allowing you to note the various ways artists chose to depict her. I also reveal which is my long-time favorite.

Gallery

"A Princes of Mars" cover art, Frank Schoonover - 1917
This is the earliest book cover, painted by noted illustrator Frank Schoonover. Here Dejah takes the form of an attractive Egyptian princess.

"A Princes of Mars" cover art, Vaclav Cutta
This is from a Czech edition, where she reminds me of 1920-vintage Hollywood exotic females.

Cover art for "The Warlord of Mars", J. Allen St. John
St. John famously illustrated many Borroughs books. Here too Dejah has a period Holywood appearance. However, John Carter really ought to look like Rudolph Valentino so as to match Dejah's Theda Bara, but he doesn't.

"A Princes of Mars" cover art, Frank Frazetta - 1970
Frazetta was hugely influential in the field of fantasy illustration, and his somewhat cartoon-like Dejah has been the model for most later illustration versions (that are not shown here).

"A Princes of Mars" cover art, Gino d'Achille - 1973
Here she is scantily clad, but not in a voluptuous pose.

"A Princes of Mars" cover, Michael WhelanWhelan gives Dejah a fabulous body, but again her pose is more modest than in Frazetta's version.

"A Princes of Mars" cover, Robert Abbett - 1963
Now this is my all-time favorite Dejah Thoris.

"A Princes of Mars" cover art, Robert Abbett
The original artwork, where the color is less hyped than on the book cover.
I first spotted the Abbett cover back in 1963 or 1965 at a news shop in, I think, Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It struck me so strongly that I simply had to buy a copy. Eventually the book disappeared from my collection. Years later, perhaps around 2014, I spied another copy at a book stall along the Seine in Paris, scooping it up for three euros. My problem was that I could not decipher Abbett's signature, increasing my long-term frustration regarding who did the artwork. Thankfully, a recent Web search allowed me to find that it was Robert Abbett, an illustrator I was unfamiliar with.

I also came across this commentary on the illustration by Gregory Manchess, an artist whose work I greatly respect. I was pleased that I wasn't the only one who appreciated Abbett's believable Dejah Thoris over the other versions.

Manchess wrote:

"This to me is one of the best A Princess of Mars covers ever done for the series. Painted in the mid-sixties, it captures that era of paperback style: from the handsome Napolean Solo look of John Carter, to the blue eye-shadowed, brunette Deja Thoris...

"From the wonderful color scheme of warm flesh against cool greens to the slap-dash brushwork, this painting has carried my interest for 40+ years. I love the way Abbett’s brush strokes carve around Deja’s shoulder and hair; I love the angle on John’s back and shoulders. Even the foreshortened sword is right on...

"But here’s where it gets me. Have you ever seen a sexier knee on a paperback? Exquisite."

Max Beckmann Portrays His Wives

Max Beckmann ( 1884-1950) is usually associated with the post- Great War Neue Sachlichkeit movement in Germany. His Wikipedia entry is here. I wrote about his many self-portraits here.

Besides portraying himself, Beckmann painted his wives -- especially his second wife -- and a number of these paintings are shown below.

His first wife was Minna Beckmann-Tube (1881-1964), Wikipedia entry here, who was about three years older than him, and a fellow art student. He insisted that she abandon art after their marriage, so she took up opera singing. She was mother of his son, and they remained friends after he dumped her.

Minna's replacement was Mathilde (Quappi) Beckmann (1904-1986), German Wikipedia entry here, 20 years younger than Beckmann. Quappi was a daughter of the important Munich painter Friedrich von Kaulbach.

There might have been more complications, but let's turn to the paintings.

Galery

Max Beckmann and Minna Beckmann-Tube - 1909

Minna Beckmann-Tube as Venus in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser, Dessau 1916
Publicity image of Minna.

Minna Beckmann-Tube - 1924
He painted this around the time their marriage ended.

Beckmann and Quappi
Probably taken during the late 1920s.

Quappi - 1925
Beckmann emphasized her nose in his early portraits, then dialed that down by the 1940s.

Quappi - 1926

Quappi - 1931
For some reason the date for this seems wrong. Her hairdo is more appropriate for towards the end of the decade.

Quappi - 1932-34
I think this is Beckmann's best portrait of her.

Quappi - 1936

Quappi - 1937
In the upper-right corner Beckmann notes this was painted in Amsterdam where they lived from 1937 to 1948.

Quappi - 1943
Image slightly cropped at the bottom.

Quappi - 1944

Quappi - 1948
Painted in St. Louis. Like Beckmann, Quappi was a smoker.

Molti Ritratti: Colette

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) is best known for her writing, but she also had a stage career when young. Her Wikipedia entry is here.

Unlike most of these "Molti Ritratti" posts, the subject sat for few formal portraits. What we mostly have are some informal paintings along with some sketches of her.

Regardless, how she was portrayed is emblematic of her times and career.

Gallery

Photo - 1906
Taken during her stage performance days.

By Fernand Humbert - c. 1896

By Jacques-Émille Blanche - c. 1905
The only formal, society-type portrait by a major artist that I could find.

By Henri Hensel - 1911
A mess, but hey!! it's Modern.

By René Carrere - 1918
Modernist feeling, but quite representational.

By André Favory - 1924
This is the last dated image I found on the Web.

By Shoshana Kertesz
Probably painted during the 1920s.

By André Dignimont
A very French sketchy take on her.

By Emilie Charmy

By Marcel Vertès

By Jean Cocteau
He was a jack of many artistic trades.