*GENIUS DANCER ISADORA DUNCAN LARGE 1906 WHITE STUDIO SILVER PRINT PHOTOGRAPH*

Description

A rare original White Studio silver print photograph circa 1906 of the legendary dancer Isadora Duncan, pasted to an Edwardian album page. Dimensions eleven by eight inches with photo eleven by five and three quarters inches. Light wear to backing, bottom right corner trimmed and slightly light otherwise good. See Isadora Duncan's extraordinary biography below.
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From Wikipedia:
Angela Isadora Duncan
(May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878
[a]
– September 14, 1927) was an American and French
dancer
who performed to acclaim throughout Europe. Born in California, she lived in
Western Europe
and the
Soviet Union
from the age of 22 until her death at age 50, when her scarf became entangled in the wheels and axle of the car in which she was riding.
Isadora Duncan was born in
San Francisco
, the youngest of the four children of Joseph Charles Duncan (1819–1898), a banker,
mining engineer
and connoisseur of the arts, and Mary Isadora Gray (1849–1922). Her brothers were
Augustin Duncan
and
Raymond Duncan
;
[2]
her sister,
Elizabeth Duncan
, was also a
dancer
.
[3]
[4]
Soon after Isadora's birth, her father was exposed to illegal bank dealings, and the family became extremely poor.
[2]
Her parents divorced when she was an infant,
[5]
and her mother moved with her family to
Oakland, California
, where she worked as a seamstress and piano teacher. From ages six to ten, Isadora attended school, but she dropped out, finding it constricting. As her family was very poor, she and her three siblings earned money by teaching dance to local children.
[2]
In 1896, Duncan became part of
Augustin Daly
's theater company in New York, but she soon became disillusioned with the form and craved a different environment with less of a hierarchy.
[6]
Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in 1898 when the British passenger steamer
SS
Mohegan
ran aground off the coast of
Cornwall
.
[7]
Work
Photo by
Arnold Genthe
of Duncan performing barefoot during her 1915–1918 American tour
Abraham Walkowitz
's
Isadora Duncan #29
, one of many works of art she inspired.
Duncan began her dancing career at a very early age by giving lessons in her home to neighbourhood children, and this continued through her teenage years.
[8]
Her novel approach to dance was evident in these early classes, in which she "followed [her] fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into [her] head".
[9]
A desire to travel brought her to Chicago, where she auditioned for many theater companies, finally finding a place in
Augustin Daly
's company. This took her to New York City where her unique vision of dance clashed with the popular pantomimes of theater companies.
[10]
In New York, Duncan took some classes with
Marie Bonfanti
but was quickly disappointed in ballet routine.
Feeling unhappy and unappreciated in America, Duncan moved to London in 1898. She performed in the drawing rooms of the wealthy, taking inspiration from the Greek vases and bas-reliefs in the
British Museum
.
[11]
[12]
The earnings from these engagements enabled her to rent a studio, allowing her to develop her work and create larger performances for the stage.
[13]
From London, she traveled to Paris, where she was inspired by the
Louvre
and the
Exposition Universelle of 1900
.
[14]
In 1902,
Loie Fuller
invited Duncan to tour with her. This took Duncan all over Europe as she created new works using her innovative technique,
[15]
which emphasized natural movement in contrast to the rigidity of tradition ballet.
[16]
She spent most of the rest of her life touring Europe and the Americas in this fashion.
[17]
Despite mixed reaction from critics, Duncan became quite popular for her distinctive style and inspired many visual artists, such as
Antoine Bourdelle
,
Auguste Rodin
,
Arnold Rönnebeck
, and
Abraham Walkowitz
, to create works based on her.
[18]
Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, such as touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission, namely the creation of beauty and the education of the young.
[
citation needed
]
To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young women her philosophy of dance. The first was established in 1904 in Berlin-
Grunewald
,
Germany
. This institution was the birthplace of the "
Isadorables
" (Anna, Maria-Theresa, Irma, Liesel, Gretel, and Erika
[19]
), Duncan's protégées who would continue her legacy.
[20]
Duncan legally adopted all six girls in 1919, and they took her last name.
[21]
After about a decade in Berlin, Duncan established a school in Paris that was shortly closed because of the outbreak of World War I.
[22]
In 1910, Duncan met the occultist
Aleister Crowley
at a party, an episode recounted by Crowley in his
Confessions
.
[23]
He refers to Duncan as "Lavinia King", and used the same invented name for her in his novel
Moonchild
. Crowley wrote of Duncan that she "has this gift of gesture in a very high degree. Let the reader study her dancing, if possible in private than in public, and learn the superb 'unconsciousness' — which is magical consciousness — with which she suits the action to the melody."
[24]
Crowley was, in fact, more attracted to Duncan's bohemian companion Mary Dempsey (
a.k.a.
Mary D'Este or Desti), with whom he had an affair. Desti had come to Paris in 1901 where she soon met Duncan, and the two became inseparable. Desti, who also appeared in
Moonchild
(as "Lisa la Giuffria") and became a member of Crowley's occult order,
[b]
later wrote a memoir of her experiences with Duncan.
[25]
In 1911, the French fashion designer
Paul Poiret
rented a mansion —
Pavillon du Butard
in
La Celle-Saint-Cloud
— and threw lavish parties, including one of the more famous
grandes fêtes
,
La fête de Bacchus
on June 20, 1912, re-creating the
Bacchanalia
hosted by
Louis XIV
at Versailles. Isadora Duncan, wearing a Greek evening gown designed by Poiret,
[26]
danced on tables among 300 guests; 900 bottles of champagne were consumed until the first light of day.
[26]
Duncan c. 1916–1918
Duncan, said to have posed for the photographer
Eadweard Muybridge
,
[27]
placed an emphasis on "evolutionary" dance motion, insisting that each movement was born from the one that preceded it, that each movement gave rise to the next, and so on in organic succession. Her dancing defined the force of progress, change, abstraction and liberation. In France, as elsewhere, Duncan delighted her audience.
[28]
In 1914, Duncan moved to the United States and transferred her school there. A townhouse on
Gramercy Park
was provided for its use, and its studio was nearby, on the northeast corner of
23rd Street
and
Fourth Avenue
(now Park Avenue South).
[29]
Otto Kahn
, the head of
Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
, gave Duncan use of the very modern Century Theatre at
West 60th Street
and
Central Park West
for her performances and productions, which included a staging of
Oedipus Rex
that involved almost all of Duncan's extended entourage and friends.
[30]
During her time in New York, Duncan posed for a number of studies by the photographer
Arnold Genthe
.
Duncan had been due to leave the United States in 1915 aboard the
RMS
Lusitania
on its ill-fated voyage, but historians believe her financial situation at the time drove her to choose a more modest crossing.
[31]
In 1921, Duncan's leftist sympathies took her to the Soviet Union, where she founded a school in Moscow. However, the Soviet government's failure to follow through on promises to support her work caused her to return to the West and leave the school to her protégée Irma.
[32]
In 1924, Duncan composed a dance routine called
Varshavianka
to the tune of the Polish revolutionary song known in English as
Whirlwinds of Danger
.
[33]
Philosophy and technique
Duncan in a Greek-inspired pose and wearing her signature Greek tunic. She took inspiration from the classical Greek arts and combined them with an American athleticism to form a new philosophy of dance, in opposition to the rigidity of traditional ballet.
Breaking with convention, Duncan imagined she had traced dance to its roots as a sacred art.
[34]
She developed from this notion a style of free and natural movements inspired by the classical Greek arts, folk dances, social dances, nature and natural forces as well as an approach to the new American athleticism which included skipping, running, jumping, leaping and tossing.
[
citation needed
]
Duncan's philosophy of dance moved away from rigid
ballet technique
and towards what she perceived as natural movement. To restore dance to a high art form instead of merely entertainment, she strove to connect emotions and movement: "I spent long days and nights in the studio seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement."
[35]
She believed dance was meant to encircle all that life had to offer—joy and sadness. Duncan took inspiration from ancient Greece and combined it with an American love of freedom. Her movement was feminine and arose from the deepest feelings in her body. This is exemplified in her revolutionary costume of a white Greek tunic and bare feet. Inspired by Greek forms, her tunics also allowed a freedom of movement that corseted ballet costumes and
pointe shoes
did not.
[36]
Costumes were not the only inspiration Duncan took from Greece: she was also inspired by ancient
Greek art
, and utilized some of its forms in her movement (see image).
[37]
Duncan wrote of American dancing: "let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance."
[38]
Her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique. Duncan also cited the sea as an early inspiration for her movement.
[39]
Also, she believed movement originated from the
solar plexus
, which she thought was the source of all movement.
[35]
It is this philosophy and new dance technique that garnered Duncan the title of the creator of modern dance.
Photo gallery
Photographic studies of Isadora Duncan made in New York by
Arnold Genthe
during her visits to America in 1915–1918
Personal life
Duncan with her children Deirdre and Patrick, in 1913
In both professional and private life, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality. She was
bisexual
[40]
and an atheist,
[41]
and alluded to her
communism
during her last United States tour, in 1922–23: she waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in
Boston
, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!"
[42]
Duncan bore two children, both out of wedlock. The first, Deirdre Beatrice (born September 24, 1906), by theatre designer
Gordon Craig
, and the second, Patrick Augustus (born May 1, 1910),
[43]
by
Paris Singer
, one of the many sons of
sewing machine
magnate
Isaac Singer
. Both children drowned in the care of their nanny in 1913 when their runaway car went into the
Seine
.
[43]
Following the accident, Duncan spent several months recuperating in
Corfu
with her brother and sister. She then spent several weeks at the
Viareggio
seaside resort with the actress
Eleonora Duse
. The fact that Duse had just left a relationship with the rebellious and epicene young
feminist
Lina Poletti
fueled speculation as to the nature of Duncan and Duse's relationship, but there has never been any indication that the two were involved romantically.
[44]
Duncan and
Sergei Yesenin
In her autobiography, Duncan relates that she begged a young Italian stranger, the sculptor
Romano Romanelli
,
[45]
to sleep with her because she was desperate for another baby. She became pregnant by him, and gave birth to a son on August 13, 1914; the infant died shortly after birth.
[46]
[47]
In 1921, after the end of the Russian Revolution, Duncan moved to Moscow where she met the acclaimed poet
Sergei Yesenin
, who was 18 years her junior. On May 2, 1922, they married, and Yesenin accompanied her on a tour of Europe and the United States. However, the marriage was brief, and in May 1923 he left Duncan and returned to Moscow. Two years later, on December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found dead in his room in the
Hotel Angleterre
in
St Petersburg
in an apparent suicide.
[48]
Duncan had a relationship with the poet and playwright
Mercedes de Acosta
, as documented in numerous revealing letters they wrote to each other.
[49]
In one, Duncan wrote, "Mercedes, lead me with your little strong hands and I will follow you – to the top of a mountain. To the end of the world. Wherever you wish."
[50]
Later life
By the late 1920s, Duncan's performing career had dwindled, and she became as notorious for her financial woes, scandalous love life and all-too-frequent public drunkenness as for her contributions to the arts. She spent her final years moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels. She spent short periods in apartments rented on her behalf by a decreasing number of friends and supporters, many of whom attempted to assist her in writing an autobiography. They hoped it might be successful enough to support her.
[
citation needed
]
In a reminiscent sketch,
Zelda Fitzgerald
wrote how she and
F. Scott Fitzgerald
, her husband, sat in a Paris cafe watching a somewhat drunk Duncan. He would speak of how memorable it was, but what Zelda recalled was that while all eyes were watching Duncan, Zelda was able to steal the salt and pepper shakers from the table.
[51]
In his book
Isadora, an Intimate Portrait
,
Sewell Stokes
, who met Duncan in the last years of her life, describes her extravagant waywardness. Duncan's
autobiography
My Life
was published in 1927. The Australian composer
Percy Grainger
called Isadora's autobiography a "life-enriching masterpiece."
[52]
Death
Duncan's tomb at
Père Lachaise Cemetery
On the night of September 14, 1927, in
Nice
, France, Duncan was a passenger in an
Amilcar CGSS
automobile owned by Benoît Falchetto, a French-Italian mechanic. She wore a long, flowing, hand-painted silk scarf, created by the Russian-born artist
Roman Chatov
, a gift from her friend Mary Desti, the mother of American film director
Preston Sturges
. Desti, who saw Duncan off, had asked her to wear a cape in the open-air vehicle because of the cold weather, but she would only agree to wear the scarf.
[53]
As they departed, she reportedly said to Desti and some companions, "
Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire !
" ("Farewell, my friends. I go to glory!"); but according to the American novelist
Glenway Wescott
, Desti later told him that Duncan's actual parting words were,
"Je vais à l'amour"
("I am off to love"). Desti considered this embarrassing, as it suggested that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a tryst.
Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck.
[1]
Desti said she called out to warn Duncan about the scarf almost immediately after the car left. Desti brought Duncan to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
[53]
As
The New York Times
noted in its obituary, Duncan "met a tragic death at Nice on the
Riviera
." "According to dispatches from Nice, Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement."
[57]
Other sources noted that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck.
[58]
The accident gave rise to
Gertrude Stein
's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous".
[59]
At the time of her death, Duncan was a
Soviet
citizen. Her will was the first of a Soviet citizen's to be
probated
in the U.S.
[60]
Duncan was cremated, and her ashes were placed next to those of her children
[61]
in the
columbarium
at
Père Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris.
[62]
On the headstone of her grave is inscribed
École du Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris
("Ballet School of the Opera of Paris").
Legacy
Duncan is known as "The Mother of Dance". While her schools in Europe did not last long, Duncan's work had impact in the art and her style is still danced based upon the instruction of Maria-Theresa Duncan,
[63]
Anna Duncan,
[64]
and Irma Duncan,
[65]
three of her six adopted daughters. The adoption process was never verified, but all six of Isadora's dancers did change their last name to Duncan.
Through her sister, Elizabeth, Duncan's approach was adopted by
Jarmila Jeřábková
from Prague where her legacy persists.
[66]
By 1913 she was already being celebrated. When the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
was built, Duncan's likeness was carved in its
bas-relief
over the entrance by sculptor
Antoine Bourdelle
and included in painted
murals
of the nine
muses
by
Maurice Denis
in the auditorium. In 1987, she was inducted into the
National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame
.
Anna, Lisa,
[67]
Theresa and Irma, pupils of Isadora Duncan's first school, carried on the aesthetic and pedagogical principles of Isadora's work in New York and Paris. Choreographer and dancer
Julia Levien
was also instrumental in furthering Duncan's work through the formation of the Duncan Dance Guild in the 1950s and the establishment of the Duncan Centenary Company in 1977.
[68]
Another means by which Duncan's dance techniques were carried forth was in the formation of the Isadora Duncan Heritage Society, by Mignon Garland, who had been taught dance by two of Duncan's key students. Garland was such a fan that she later lived in a building erected at the same site and address as Duncan, attached a commemorative plaque near the entrance, which is still there as of 2016. Garland also succeeded in having San Francisco rename an alley on the same block from Adelaide Place to Isadora Duncan Lane.
[69]
[70]
In medicine, the Isadora Duncan Syndrome refers to injury or death consequent to entanglement of neckwear with a wheel or other machinery.
[71]
In popular culture
Duncan has attracted literary and artistic attention from the 1920s to the present, in novels, film, ballet, theatre, music, and poetry.
Duncan has been portrayed in novels including
Aleister Crowley
's
Moonchild
(as 'Lavinia King'), published in 1923,
[72]
and
Upton Sinclair
's
World's End
(1940) and
Between Two Worlds
(1941), the first two novels in his Pulitzer Prize winning
Lanny Budd
series.
[73]
She is also the subject of
Amelia Gray
's novel
Isadora
(2017).
[74]
Two characters in the
A Series of Unfortunate Events
series of novels are named after her,
Isadora Quagmire
and
Duncan Quagmire
.
[75]
Among the films featuring Duncan are:
The 1966
BBC
biopic
by Kenneth Russell,
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
, which was introduced by Duncan's biographer,
Sewell Stokes
, Duncan was played by
Vivian Pickles
.
[76]
The 1968 film
Isadora
, nominated for the
Palme d'Or
at
Cannes
, stars
Vanessa Redgrave
as Duncan. The film was based in part of Duncan's autobiography. Redgrave was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performance as Duncan.
[76]
[77]
Archival footage of Duncan was used in the 1985 popular documentary
That's Dancing!
.
[78]
[79]
A 1989 documentary,
Isadora Duncan: Movement from the Soul
, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1989
Sundance Film Festival
.
[80]
Ballets based on Duncan include:
In 1976
Frederick Ashton
created a short ballet entitled
Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan
for
Lynn Seymour
of the
Royal Ballet
, in which "Ashton fused Duncan's style with an imprint of his own";
Marie Rambert
claimed after seeing it that it was exactly as she remembered Duncan dancing.
[81]
In 1981, she was the subject of a
ballet
,
Isadora
, written and
choreographed
by the
Royal Ballet
's
Kenneth MacMillan
, and performed at
Covent Garden
.
[82]
On the theatre stage, Duncan is portrayed in:
A 1991 stage play
When She Danced
by
Martin Sherman
about Duncan's later years, won the
Evening Standard Award
for
Vanessa Redgrave
as Best Actress.
[83]
In 2016,
Lily-Rose Depp
portrayed Duncan in
The Dancer
, a French biographical musical drama of dancer
Loie Fuller
.
[84]
Duncan is featured in music in:
The popular 1970s TV
sitcom
Maude
mentions her in its theme song: "Isadora was the first bra-burner/Ain't ya glad she showed up?"
Celia Cruz
recorded a track titled Isadora Duncan with the
Fania All-Stars
for the album
Cross Over
released in 1979.
[85]
Rock musician
Vic Chesnutt
included a song about Duncan on his debut album
Little
.
[86]
Rock band
Burden of a day
included a song about Duncan on their album
Oneonethousand
In the poem
Fever 103
by
Sylvia Plath
, the speaker alludes to Isadora's scarves.