The countess' charming feet - photographs by Atelier d'Ora, 1916

 

Schuhe der Gräfin Erdödy bei der Krönung Kaiser Karls zum König von Ungarn - Shoes of Countess Erdödy at the coronation of Emperor Karl as king of Hungary. I can't imagine any explanation for the creation of these decorative though rather peculiar images other than the desire to celebrate this quite fetching pair of shoes; they are portraits of shoes. But to whom did these charming slippers and shapely ankles belong?

Julia, Countess Erdödy, unknown source, circa 1905-10.

The most likely candidate, only identified when the images were found as a "Countess Erdödy," would be the previous Julia Hanby Scott, born in New York in 1858, the wife of Count Gyorgy Maria Gobert Erdödy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló. But is this the sort of pose one might expect of a high-ranking lady of a "certain age"? (Fifty-eight, to be precise.) With her heavily embroidered fur-edged gown lifted up and away to expose the very delicate and exquisitely composed - various filmy laces, ribbon inserts, appliquéd ribbon roses - petticoat?

Julia, Countess Erdödy, and her daughters, Franziska and "Jenny." From The King, published 13 August 1904.

A complicating factor is that the countess' two daughters - "Jenny" and Franziska - were also countesses. And they were also photographed by Atelier d'Ora on the same occasion. But neither young lady wears a gown edged with fur. And the one shoe to be seen making a timid appearance in the second portrait of the sisters does not resemble the shoes in question. So one has to assume the shoe-proud countess is their mother. Unless, of course, there's yet another - and even more elusive - "Countess Erdödy" lurking somewhere...?

Countesses Johanna "Jenny" Margareta Margit Maria Gobertina and Franziska Violet Maria Gobertina Erdödy.

Countess Franziska Violet Maria Gobertina Erdödy.

The occasion, by the way, was the Hungarian coronation of Karl I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, who ascended the throne in November 1916 upon the death of of his great-uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph. The following month, in the midst of WWI, Karl's coronation as king of Hungary was held in Budapest. But then, of course, the Habsburg monarchy was abolished slightly less than two years later, in November of 1918.

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The text Rohdruck - eigentum des Atelier d'Ora, which is stamped on most of the images, translates to "Raw print - property of Atelier d'Ora."

Gustatory torment - paintings of a very patient Great Dane by Wilhelm Trübner, 1877-79

Caesar am Rubikon / Dogge mit Wurstschüssel, 1878. (Caesar at the Rubicon / Great Dane with sausage bowl.)

And if at first you succeed... repeat! Trübner subsequently painted at least two variations of the painting.

Caesar am Rubicon / Dogge mit Wurstschüssel, 1879.

Caesar am Rubicon / Dogge mit Wurstschüssel, circa 1880.

But these weren't his first essays on this humorous theme - so very relatable to anyone who's ever had a dog - as, previously, he had painted two versions of a painting of the even more devilishly taunted yet still profoundly obedient Great Dane.

Ave Caesar morituri te salutant / Dogge mit Würsten, 1877. (Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die salute you / Great Dane with sausages.)

Ave Caesar morituri te salutant / Dogge mit Würsten, 1878.

He also produced a rather more dignified, straightforward portrait of his dog, Sitzende Dogge, circa 1877-78.

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Wilhelm Trübner (3 February 1851, Heidelberg – 21 December 1917, Karlsruhe), German realist painter of the circle of Wilhelm Leibl.

From the website of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza:

The son of a German jeweller and goldsmith, the painter Wilhelm Trübner began studying painting at the Kuntschule in Karlsruhe in 1867. Two years later he moved to Munich, where he visited the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. After studying for a brief spell in Stuttgart, he returned to Munich, where in 1871 he made the acquaintance of Wilhelm Leibl, a Naturalist painter who had met Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet, among others, during his stay in Paris. Encouraged by Leibl, he dropped out of the academy together with his colleagues Carl Schuch and Albert Lang, with whom he went to paint in the Lake Starnberg area. With their new master they had the chance to become acquainted with the new painting trends of their French contemporaries and espoused pure painting in which priority was given to formal qualities. The years he belonged to the Leibl-Kreis (Leibl Circle) are regarded as the artistic peak in Trübner’s career, although his interest in formal questions during this period distanced him from critics and public.

During the following years Trübner lived in Munich, made numerous trips to other European capitals and spent a period in London, from 1884 to 1885. His painting came close to Impressionism and at the beginning of the 1890s he met Lovis Corinth and Max Liebermann. He was involved in establishing the Munich Secession in 1892, but soon left and founded the Freie Vereinigung the following year. In 1896 he was appointed director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt and shortly afterwards founded a private art school.

He became director of the Kunstschule of Karlsruhe in 1904. He died in the city in 1917, before he could take up his new post as professor of the Berlin Akademie der Künste.

"La Perse" - evening coat, a collaboration between Paul Poiret and Raoul Dufy, 1911

 

Adapted from the website of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Institute:

In his memoir The King of Fashion (1931), Poiret wrote, "Am I a fool when I dream of putting art into my dresses, a fool when I say dressmaking is an art? For I have always loved painters, and felt on an equal footing with them. It seems to me that we practice the same craft, and that they are my fellow workers." Dismissing the sibling rivalries that have always dogged the fine and applied arts, Poiret believed that art and fashion were not simply involved but indivisible. This belief was central to Poiret's vision of modernity, which, to a large extent, was achieved through his deployment of art discourse.

Two portraits of Olga de Meyer wearing Poiret's La Perse, photographed by her husband Baron de Meyer.

As well as presenting himself as an artist and patron of the arts, Poiret promoted his fashions as unique and original works of art in and of themselves. He did this by marshaling the visual and performing arts, and by working with artists associated with avant-garde modernism. Among Poiret's various collaborations, the most enduring was with Raoul Dufy, whose career as a textile designer he helped launch. 

Dufy's boldly graphic designs reflected Poiret's preference for the artisanal. The postwar embrace of an industrial and mechanical modernity was antithetical to Poiret. However, in the years before the war, the art of the "workman", such as Dufy, was seen as modern in the repudiation of Belle Époque decadence and sophistication. And Dufy's flat, graphic patterns were ideally suited to Poiret's planar, abstract designs, a fact that is palpable in a signature creation such as La Perse, which is made from a fabric - a block-printed velvet - that Dufy designed in conjunction with the silk manufacturer Bianchini-Férier.

La Perse, projet de tissu pour Paul Poiret, 1911. Dufy’s original design - in ink wash on paper - which was used to create the textile.⁣