22.00 USD
One of our favorite and most magical subgenres of "Lovely Lady" postcards has to be that of the Marvelous Maenad. These are somewhat idealized, and presumably toned down, versions of those wild maidens of ancient Greece, who in their worship of Dionysus, god of wine and sensual abandon, got up to all kinds of mischief.
The maenad as an image, was practically the poster girl of La Belle Epoque, expressing that rich, earthy, "joie de vivre," which has come to be seen as so expressive of the era. Of course we can't forget that Maenad images also celebrated the grape harvest and wine production (not just the drinking of it :), a very important contributor to the economy of France, and so in some ways, were patriotic images too!
In our Marvelous Maenad section, we're not all that particular about whether the model is depicted as a woodland sprite, a pagan priestess, or if they're just a couple of Belle Epoque chorus girls unwinding after a tough dress rehearsal. The postcards we list in this section might have been published anytime between the 1890s and the 1930s. Basically, if they're wearing grapes, grapevines, animal skins, or any of the other accoutrements no self respecting maenad could do without, this is the section they'll end up in. Welcome to the Bacchanal!!! :)
La Vigne was a wonderful series of images made in the early 1900s by Monsieur Walery, aka Stanislaw Julian Ignacy, Count Ostorog (1863-1935). He was the son of Count Stanislaw Julian Ostorog the elder. Both men were well known and well respected photographers. The elder Count, born in Lithuania in 1830, grew up in Paris, was a professional soldier (an officer in various armies), and becoming a British citizen in the 1860s, took the name Walery as a working name (we read somewhere that his wife's (the Countess) name was Waleria, and that he adapted his working name from hers). Queen Victoria sat for him, as did many other notables of Victorian society.
Having taken the same working name as his father, and though usually thought of as a French photographer, Walery the younger, whose photographs are the ones that most interest us here at Red Poulaine, probably spoke an unaccented Queen's English of the upper classes despite his romantic name and title, and was likely English to the core. Though himself a successful photographer in London, he moved to Paris in 1900 and opened a lavishly decorated studio on the Rue de Irondes, where he made a specialty of theatrical portraits.
A marvelous image of a really cute (and corseted) stage performer in a fantastic maenad get-up, beautifully hand-tinted and in very nice posted condition.
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!