Friday, October 30, 2020

The impresario's wife - Florence Gladman, Mrs. André Charlot, by Bassano, 1912 and 1913


9 October 1912. (Eight images.)
1913. (Four images.)

*

Florence Emily Gladman, known as "Flip" in her family circle, was one of the twelve children of a printer and his wife. It seems the whole family was stagestruck, and Florence and her older sister "Kit", the two eldest of the children, attended a theatrical academy in London and, upon completion of their studies, dubbed themselves the Gladman Sisters. They formed an act with an emphasis on dance and toured Britain with some success, enough to gain the attention of Parisian scouts. The sisters were in Paris for the 1908-09 season where they met André Charlot, French theater manager, impresario and, later, actor. Florence and André soon married and together had a son, Philip (1910-1966), who would become a film editor in England, and they later adopted Joan, the daughter of one of Forence's sisters who had died. Beginning in 1912 and continuing through the Twenties, Charlot would become famous in London and on Broadway for his smart and elegant musical revues, productions which starred the likes of such now legendary performers as Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Beatrice Lillie, and Jack Buchanan. Theater attendance dropped dramatically with the Depression; he was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1931. And after a series of less than entirely successful smaller shows the couple decamped to Hollywood at the end of the Thirties, where between 1942 and 1955, Charlot reinvented himself as an actor, appearing in small roles in more than fifty films - usually uncredited - before his death in May of 1956. I've been unable to find any more biographical data on his wife, Florence, but it's said that she died only three months after her husband's passing.


Sunday, October 25, 2020

Small, made large - a selection of portrait miniatures


Portrait of a lady, by Louis-Marie Sicard, called Sicardi, circa 1787.
Portrait of a lady, Nathaniel Rogers, circa 1820s.
Edward Raphael, by John Smart, 1789.
Portrait of a young boy, Continental School, circa 1610.
 Portrait of a young gentleman, by Jean-Étienne Liotard, circa 1750.
Portrait of a nun, by Richard Cosway, circa 1790.
Portrait of a lady, unknown artist, circa 1800.
 Portrait of an army officer, by George Engleheart, circa 1800.
Margaret Walpole, née Clive, by Richard Cosway, circa 1790.
Portrait of a young gentleman, by Nicholas Hilliard, circa 1600.
Unknown artist, probably circa first part of the nineteenth century.
Robert Arthur de Acres, marquis de l'Aigle, by François Meuret, 1858.
Portrait of a lady, by Louis-Marie Sicard, called Sicardi, 1789.
Portrait of a young lady, attributed to Levina Teerlinc, 1549.
Carl-Erik Wadenstierna, by Nicolas Lavreince (Niklas Lafrensen), circa 1760s.
Elizabeth Stirling Foote, by Thomas Seir Cummings, 1832.
 Sir George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (?), by Richard Cosway, circa 1766.
Self-portrait, by Anne Mee, circa 1795.
John Dent, "Solicitor and County Coroner", unknown artist, circa 1810-20.
Francis Bacon, later 1st Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578.
Portrait of a young lady, unknown artist, circa 1840s.
Colonel the Hon. James Hamilton of the Coldstream Guards, by John Smart, 1784.
Edward Livingston, by Anson Dickinson, circa 1827.
Unknown artist, circa 1780s.
Margaret Roper, by Hans Holbein the Younger, circa 1535-36.
A gentleman in the uniform of a volunteer regiment, by John Smart, 1799.
Unknown child, by Anson Dickinson, circa 1810-30.
Richard Whitmore, aged 3, by Bernard Lens III, 1718.
 Portrait of a lady, by Richard Cosway, 1798.
Muhammad Ali Khan, Nawab of Arcot, by John Smart, 1787.
Royal Ralph Hinman, by Anson Dickinson, circa 1810-20.
Portrait of a lady, by Adam Buck, 1803.
John Dyer Collier, by George Engleheart, circa 1780s-90s.
Portrait of a lady, attributed to Georges Nicolas Toussaint Augustin, called Augustin Dubourg, circa 1790.
Self-portrait, by Louis François Aubry (copy after), circa 1805 (original 1795).
Miss Burnaby Green, by Andrew Robertson, 1829.
Count Axel von Fersen, attributed to Nicolas Lavreince (Niklas Lafrensen), circa 1784.
Count Fersen was the "special friend" of Queen Marie Antoinette.
James Bogert, Jr., by Henry Inman, circa 1835.
Portrait of a lady painting a portrait miniature, by Jean-Baptiste Soyer, circa 1795.
Unknown woman in masque costume, by Isaac Oliver, 1609.
Count Felix von Woyna, by Friedrich Ludwig Vieth von Golssenau, circa 1815.
Portrait of a lady, called Mrs. Ackland, by Sir William Charles Ross, circa 1840s.
 Portrait of a boy, attributed to Nicolas Bernard Lépicié, circa 1780.
Portrait of a lady, by George Engleheart, circa 1780s.
Louis de Kergorlay, by François Dumont, 1789.