The Vertigo Years Europe, 1900–1914 PHILIPP BLOM A Member of the Perseus Books Group NEW YORK 2008 Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1 1900: The Dynamo and the Virgin 5 2 1901: The Changing of the Guard 23 3 1902: Oedipus Rex 44 4 1903: A Strange Luminescence 71 5 1904: His Majesty and Mister Morel 92 6 1905: In All Fury 122 7 1906: Dreadnought and Anxiety 155 8 1907: Dreams and Visions 189 9 1908: Ladies with Rocks 219 10 1909: The Cult of the Fast Machine 249 11 1910: Human Nature Changed 277 12 1911: People’s Palaces 308 13 1912: Questions of Breeding 334 14 1913: Wagner’s Crime 360 15 1914: Murder Most Foul 388 Notes 409 Bibliography 426 Index 453 vii List of Illustrations . Text Illustrations p. 6 Porte monumentale, World Fair Paris, 1900 (Roger-Viollet/Getty) p. 9 A view of the World Fair from the Alexandre III bridge, Paris, 1900 (Roger-Viollet/Getty) p. 19 The hall of dynamos,World Fair Paris, 1900 (Roger-Viollet/Topfoto) p. 28 Edward VII (Corbis) p. 37 Ernst, Duke of Saxony-Altenburg with his family (Schlossmuseum, Altenburg) p. 41 Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1901 (Topfoto) p. 53 Sigmund Freud with his grandchildren, 1922 (Mary Evans Picture Library) p. 65 AEG turbine factory, Berlin, by Peter Behrens (AKG images) © DACS 2008 p. 66 Fagus works, Alfeld by Walter Gropius (AKG images) © DACS 2008 p. 67 Gustav Klimt, Judith, 1901, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna (Bridgeman Art Library) p. 68 Gustav Klimt, Cover of Ver Sacrum, the journal of the Viennese Secession, 1898, Historisches Museum der Stadt, Vienna (Bridgeman Art Library) p. 72 Marie and Pierre Curie, 1904 (Getty) p. 81 Albert Einstein (Topfoto) p. 95 Leopold II of Belgium (Corbis) p. 96 Edward Dene Morel (Anti-Slavery International) p. 100 Father with his daughter’s severed hand, Congo (Anti-Slavery International) p. 118 Ludwig Deutsch, The Nubian Guard, Fine Art Society, London (Bridgeman Art Library) p. 125 Russian peasants, c.1900 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archive) p. 139 Father Gapon surrounded by supporters (AKG images) p. 162 Admiral Jackie Fisher, c.1913 (TopFoto) viii list of illustrations p. 165 Duel Landau-Maurras, 7 December 1909 (Roger-Viollet/Bridgeman Art Library) p. 191 Bertha von Suttner (AKG images) p. 201 Gusto Gräser (Gusto Gräser Archive) p. 205 Young Wandervogel activists, 1914 (AKG images) p. 209 Elena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, 1908 (Bridgeman Art Library) p. 213 Rudolf Steiner, 1913 (AKG images) p. 225 Mary Gawthorpe, January 1909 (Mary Evans Picture Library) p. 228 Emmeline Pankhurst arrested outside Buckingham Palace, January 1914 (Getty images) p. 230 Leonora Cohen (Leeds Museum and Galleries, City Art Gallery) p. 231 Lillian Lenton, police identity photograph, c.1910 (National Portrait Gallery, London) p. 250 Louis Blériot flying over the Channel, July 1909 (Topfoto) p. 292 Mikhail Larionov, Autumn, c.1910–12, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (Bridgeman Art Library) © AGAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008 p. 294 Georges Braque, Still Life with a Violin and a Pitcher, 1910, Kunstmuseum, Basel (Bridgeman Art Library) © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008 p. 295 Photograph by Thomas Eakins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archive) p. 296 Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912, Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania (Bridgman Art Library) © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008 p. 303 Oskar Kokoschka, The Dreaming Boys, 1908, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (Bridgeman Art Library) © Foundation Oskar Kokoschka/DACS 2008 p. 304 Alfred Kubin, War, c 1903, Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden © Everhard Spangenberg/DACS 2008 p. 309 Postal Strike in front of the Cinema Palace-Gaumont, 1909 (Roger- Viollet/Bridgeman Art Library) p. 313 Max Linder in a film still, c.1907–8 (Roger-Viollet/Topfoto) p. 314 Sarah Bernhardt (Topfoto) p. 316 Enrico Caruso (Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library) p. 318 Photographs by Jacques Henri Lartigue, Donation Lartigue © Ministère de la Culture, France/AAJHL p. 324 Kellogg’s corn flakes magazine advert, c.1910 (Advertising Archives, London) p. 331 Women cyclists (Mary Evans Picture Library) p. 342 Ernst Haeckel, Ascidiae, plate 85 from Kunstformen der Natur, 1899–1904 (Bridgeman Art Library) ix list of illustrations p. 378 Cesare Lombroso, Specimen of Criminals, from L’Homme Criminel, published by Felix Alcan, 1887 (Bridgeman Art Library) p. 381 Alfred Kubin, Salto Mortale, c.1903, Albertina, Vienna © Everhard Spangenberg/DACS 2008 p. 385 Marius Jacob dir Escande (Roger-Viollet/Bridgeman Art Library) p. 392 Henriette Caillaux arriving at the Courts of Justice, 1914 (Roger- Viollet/Bridgeman Art Library) p. 397 Jean Metzinger, The cycle-racing track, 1914, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (The Art Archive) © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008 p. 407 Photograph by Eugène Atget (private collection) Colour Plate Section Egon Schiele, Nude Self-Portrait, 1910, Leopold Collection, Vienna (AKG images) Carlo Carrà, Interventionist Manifesto, 1914, Mattioli Collection, Milan (Bridgeman Art Library) Luigi Russolo, The Dynamism of an Automobile, 1911, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (Bridgeman Art Library) Robert Delaunay, Champs de Mars, Art Institute of Chicago (Scala) Umberto Boccioni, The Street Enters the House, 1911, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover (Bridgeman Art Library) Henri Matisse, Le Bonheur de Vivre, 1905–6, The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania (Bridgeman Art Library) © Succession H. Matisse/DACS 2008 Kazimir Malevich, Taking in the Rye, 1912, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Bridgeman Art Library) Kazimir Malevich, An Englishman in Moscow, 1913–14, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Bridgeman Art Library) Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Museum of Modern Art, New York (Bridgeman Art Library) © Succession Picasso/DACS 2008 Gustav Klimt, Mäda Primavesi, 1912, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Corbis) Giorgio de Chirico, The Uncertainty of the Poet, 1913 Tate Gallery, London © DACS 2008 André Derain, At the Suresnes Ball, 1903, St Louis Art Museum © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008 Unless otherwise credited all photographs were loaned from private collections. While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, if any have inadvertently been overlooked the publishers will be happy to acknowledge them in future editions. x Nothing is less ethical than so-called sexual ‘morality’; which rests entirely on social convenience…perhaps the most important psychological fact of our time is the tension between ethics and social rules, which is growing slowly and being more and more acutely felt. On this Procrustean bed the modern soul is so overstretched, so wrenched apart in its innermost fibres and made oversensitive, that it is hard to see a parallel in all of intellectual history… Second problem: that of modernity, how to reconcile with the soul the enormous mass of the new. The particular character of today lies in the fact that no other time had to conquer such a multitude of new elements. – Count Harry Kessler, Diary, 7 April 1903 Introduction hey are standing on the side of a tree-lined country road; men and Tboys mostly, full of anticipation. The heat of the summer bears down on them. They look down the road stretching out ahead, as far as they can see. A faint humming sound becomes audible. A car appears on the straight line between the streets, small and surrounded by a cloud of dust, and growing, growing with every passing second. It hurtles towards the specta- tors, its powerful engine speeding it on, roaring ever more loudly, a vision of concentrated power. One of the onlookers, a young man of eighteen, readies his camera to take the shot he has been waiting for. The vehicle is coming closer, roaring, pulsing with energy. Now it is almost there. The teenage photographer is looking intently through his lens. He can see clearly the driver and his pas- senger behind the huge bonnet, sees the number six painted on the petrol tank, feels the shockwave of noise and power as the engine speeds past him. He has released the shutter that very moment. Now, as the dust settles around him, he must wait to see how the photo will be. When he sees the picture he has taken on that 26 June 1912 at the French Grand Prix, the young photographer is disappointed. The number six car is only half in the frame, the background smudged and strangely dis- tended. He puts the photo away. He is Jacques Henri Lartigue. The image he considers a failure will be exhibited forty years later and will make him famous, showing all the rush, the energy, the velocity that were so impor- tant during the years between the turn of the century and the autumn of 1914. Today, the period before the outbreak of the First World War is often regarded as idyllic: the time before the fall, the good old days, a belle époque celebrated in lavishly decorated films, a beautiful, intact society about to be shattered by the forces driving it inexorably towards disaster. After 1918, 1 the vertigo years according to this reading of events, the phoenix of modernity arose from the ashes of the old world. To most people who lived around 1900 this nostalgic view with its emphasis on solidity and grace would have come as a surprise. Their experi- ence of this period was as yet unembellished by reminiscence. It was more raw, and marked by fascinations and fears much closer to our own time. Then as now, rapid changes in technology, globalization, communication technologies and changes in the social fabric dominated conversations and newspaper articles; then as now, cultures of mass consumption stamped their mark on the time; then as now, the feeling of living in an accelerating world, of speeding into the unknown, was overwhelming. This is why Lartigue’s photo is so fitting as an emblem for its time.