Kelsey D. Martin / Crafting Public Identities 1 Crafting Public Identities: Printed Portraits of Nineteenth-Century Female Icons An essay for the exhibition catalogue, The Changing Face of Portraiture: People and Places in the Multiple; February 20 – May 23, 2015; University of New Mexico Art Museum In the nineteenth century, women in the public sphere (actresses, artists, cultural figures, etc.) took advantage of new artistic technologies to craft, manipulate, and promote their image. Understanding that publicity brought recognition and ultimately the chance of success, iconic women of the 1800s carefully constructed their public identities to attract attention, pique interest, and build fashionable or even risqué reputations. The employment of such personas for shock value, expression of sophistication, or to gain stardom challenged nineteenth-century regulatory norms of gender as women rejected traditional, private spheres and roles. For example, American actress Adah Isaacs Menken cultivated a notorious penchant for dressing in men’s clothing; cultural icon Misia Sert represented the epitome of the modern French woman; and French actress Sarah Bernhardt commodified herself as a heroine of eternal fame. The printed portrait served as the primary avenue to shape the public personas of these women, proliferating not only as engravings and etchings, but also the immensely popular pocket-sized cartes-de-viste and monolithic lithograph posters. Such public identities could be formulated through varying relationships between the sitter and the artist, ranging from a close, personal relationship to never having met. Despite differing utilization of printed media and various levels of communication with their artist, each of the aforementioned women carefully crafted their identities with the public portrait and promoted themselves as a talented, modern woman. THE RISE OF THE CARTE-DE-VISITE Patented in Paris in 1854 by photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, the carte-de-visite collecting frenzy reached its peak across Europe and America by the 1860s. Celebrity cartes of cherished icons and heroes were particularly coveted. In America, celebrity cartes-de-visite became particularly popular due to the outbreak of the Civil War, as relatively cheap portraits of military and political leaders were in high demand. The rapid influxes of immigration after the Civil War led to a booming entertainment industry; and as Americans gained wealth, so did those who participated in show business.i Although Kelsey D. Martin / Crafting Public Identities 2 theater had long been a popular site of entertainment in America, the inundation of performers from around the world and the increase in population fostered a public audience that devoured every riveting and sordid detail of their favorite icons in the press—an obsession known as the 'cult of personality'.ii Photographers in Europe and America quickly capitalized on the 'cult of personality' that emerged with the booming interest in theater and celebrity portraits by using publicity photographs to promote both the sitter and the photographer’s studio. Card portraits of celebrities were stamped with photographers’ trademarks, publicizing a particular photographer coveted by the rich and famous. Profits from cartes-de-visite were so great that photographers encouraged the famous to pose for portraits by offering them a flat fee or royalty based on the number of cards sold.iii Such cartes were known as ‘sure cards’, referring to their likelihood of turning a profit. NAPOLEON SARONY Napoleon Sarony (1821 – 1896), already a popular lithographer in the years before the Civil War, learned photography and established studios first in Birmingham, England and then New York by 1866. Sarony took advantage of Europe and America’s growing fascination for theater by fulfilling demand for celebrity portraits, and theatrical portraits later became the photographer’s specialty.iv Sarony introduced accessories and painted backgrounds while posing his sitters in a variety of gestures and expressions. This style departed from the often stationary and expressionless portraits of past photographs, such as the daguerreotypes largely used in the 1840s. Sarony’s imaginative backdrops and dramatic scenarios made the photographer a popular choice for clients ranging from the everyday citizen to the most famous icons of the nineteenth century. Benjamin J. Falk, a friend and competitor of Sarony, stated: “More than all others, he had a gift of seizing what was characteristic and picturesque in his subjects with the quick intuition belonging to the successful photographer, and making these features predominant in his pictures.”v ADAH ISAACS MENKEN Kelsey D. Martin / Crafting Public Identities 3 American actress Adah Isaacs Menken (1835 – 1868) was one of the most famous clients to sit for Sarony during the early part of his career. As early as 1859, the actress had advertised herself numerous times through cartes-de-visite, ensuring that a sizeable quantity of cartes was available in every city she played.vi Menken’s use of publicity photographs served purposes other than just theatrical advertisement: with the carte-de- visite, she cultivated international notoriety as an “amorous adventuress” who created a variety of fabricated histories for her audiences.vii The dissemination of Menken’s on-stage antics and her unconventional private life through cartes-de-visite led to recognition (and infamy) wherever she went. Not one to follow traditional roles, Menken married and divorced numerous times. The actress was similarly unconventional in her professional life, embarking on several audacious career moves with her infamous “breech roles”—theatrical plays in which she played a man. Menken appeared in her most notable male role as Mazeppa: the lead character in the melodrama based on Lord Byron’s poem. Her performance sparked a storm of controversy when she appeared on stage dressed in nude tights—thus, “naked”— and tied to a horse. Though critics were far from positive about Menken’s skills as an actress, her voluptuous figure was admired while her courage to appear “nude” on stage was praised.viii After her preliminary success with Mazeppa in New York, Menken desired to commission a carte-de-visite portraying herself as Mazeppa, the tragic lover, while performing the play in England. The portrait was sure to garner revenue due to the shocking nature of Menken’s part—serving to advertise Mazeppa in England while promoting Menken’s public identity as a daring performer. Disappointed by several photographers who failed to provide her with the perfect portrait, Menken approached Sarony’s Birmingham studio. According to Sarony, Menken permitted the photographer to capture her in eight different poses on the condition that she could pose herself.ix Sarony readily agreed—an out-of-character congeniality for the photographer who was later known for refusing sitters who did not respond to his direction.x When Sarony brought the final cartes-de-visite of Menken as Mazeppa to Menken’s dressing room, the actress was so impressed that she jumped from her seat to kiss the photographer.xi Kelsey D. Martin / Crafting Public Identities 4 Sarony’s success with the picky actress fostered future collaboration. Menken approached Sarony again in the winter of 1865 to create her portrait as Leon, a Mexican slave in John Brougham’s Child of the Sun.xii Again transgressing traditional feminine ideals, Menken’s male persona rode horseback, instigated numerous brawls, and even fired a pistol on stage.xiii Sarony’s negatives for Menken as Leon were sectioned into eight carte-de- visite portraits to one plate that were cut and distributed accordingly. The University of New Mexico Art Museum holds the first pose of one of these plates [Fig. 1]. Figure 1: Napoleon Sarony, Menken as Leon. In Menken as Leon, the actress lounges on her side wearing the short-brimmed hat and costume of her male role. Sarony was known for creating set designs evocative of Old Master paintingsxiv— seen here in the plush drapery that hangs in elegant contrast to the diagonal line of Menken’s body. Both the actress’s languid posture (reminiscent of a classical Greek statue) and Sarony’s traditional set design attempt to elevate Menken’s status as an actress by using imagery of cherished cultural conventions. In turn, Menken’s sexuality is highlighted through seductive gestures that create shock value when juxtaposed with her male attire. For example, Menken’s left hand tugs at the plunging Kelsey D. Martin / Crafting Public Identities 5 neckline of her striped shirt as her right hand pulls at a pair of unfastened pants, uncovering her bare legs. Through an imaginative set and carefully positioned body, Menken’s portrait as Leon is as much a performance as the actual play. By making clear for the viewer that she is a woman dressed as a man, Menken rejects norms of her gender to provoke viewers and promote her role in Child of the Sun. Though Sarony most likely influenced the way the actress was posed, it was Menken that chose her controversial roles and sought to promote herself through cartes-de-visite. Menken’s cross-dressing feats, advertised by such cartes, inspired several other actresses in the 1860s. This was the case for actress Lydia Thompson, who moved to New York to appear in a burlesque called Ixion where young women donned the nude tights made famous by Menken’s performance in Mazeppa.xv The popularity of Menken, her stage roles, and her private life can be attributed to the success of cartes-de-visite in the construction, dissemination, and transmission of her identities. FRENCH POSTERS OF THE BELLE ÉPOQUE Cartes-de-visite were not the only technological advancement in nineteenth-century printed media. The 1890s saw the golden age of color etching and lithography, where the rapid production and dissemination of monolithic lithograph posters became possible after the invention of steam-powered presses.xvi This technological advancement in printing emerged concurrently with the Belle Époque in France, an era that conflated style and fashion with consumerism.