Dancing into the shadows - Lo Hesse in photographs by Franz Xaver Setzer, 1918 - 1925

 

Licht und Schatten. (Two images.)

 All photographs by Franz Xaver Setzer except where noted.

Last month I shared a post on the wonderful photographs of Franz Xaver Setzer. In gathering the images, I kept coming across his particularly interesting portraits of a dancer previously unknown to me, Lo Hesse, and decided she was so fabulous that she deserved a post of her own.

Tschaikiun. If it isn't obvious, she wore a mask in this role. (three images.)

In an "African" costume. (Two images.)

As Ahnfrau, 1924. (Three images.)

Circa 1925.

Gliederpuppe.

Sartorio. (Three images.)

Der blaue Walzer. (Two images.)

With Joachim von Seewitz. 

In a "French ballet." (Three images.) With Joachim von Seewitz.

Circa 1925.

Rubinstein-Walzer, 1918. (Three images.) With Joachim von Seewitz.

In "Venetian" costume. (Three images.)

 With Toni Birkmeyer.

Circa 1918.

Maskerade. (Three images.) With Joachim von Seewitz.

Tanzlied. (Two images.)

"Study: At the Spinet," circa 1918.

Humoreske, 1918. (Two images.)

In a "Spanish dance," circa 1921. (Four images.) With Joachim von Seewitz.

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Lo Hesse (née Charlotte Hesse; 6 August 1889, Berlin - 1983?), German dancer, actress, and model. Very little information about her seems to be available, even the date and location of her death. I've read that she married early and was widowed soon after, and that she studied music in Munich. What is certain is that she studied with and became the muse of the Munich graphic artist and stage designer Walter Schnackenberg. He encouraged her to dance and designed all of the unusual and extravagant costumes seen in these images. At his suggestion, in 1916 she paired with dancer Joachim von Seewitz; from their debut in Munich, they went on to great success, including an engagement at the Staatsoper Berlin. In 1919 the pair turned down an offer from the Vienna State Opera - made at the recommendation of composer Richard Strauss - instead embarking on a tour of South America. Von Seewitz later went on to a successful solo career but, even though she appears to have lived to the age of about ninety-four, after the middle of the 1920s, Hesse simply disappears. I can find no further mention of her on the internet, though some of her records are kept in the German Dance Archive Cologne.

"The artist at home." (Two images.)

Lo Hesse, wearing her Maskerade costume by Walter Schnackenberg, with the designer in his studio.
Photograph by Franz Grainer (Misspelled "Greiner.")

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Costume for Maskerade by Walter Schnackenberg.

Figurine by sculptor and porcelain ceramicist Constantin Solzer-Defanti for the Rosenthal company.

Figurine, a variation on Schnackenberg's Maskerade costume design, by Josef Kostial for the Goldscheider Porcelain Manufactory.

Photograph by Hanns Holdt.

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Costume for Tanzlied by Walter Schnackenberg.

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Costume for Sartorio by Walter Schnackenberg.

Figurine by Constantin Solzer-Defanti for Rosenthal.

Photograph by Franz Grainer.

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Costume for Tschaikiun by Walter Schnackenberg. (Two images.)

Figurine by Constantin Solzer-Defanti for Rosenthal.

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In 1921 Hesse and von Seewitz performed in a cigarette commercial entitled Der Traum des Torero. The two-minute-long silent film advertised the German Manoli company's "Diva" line of cigarettes. Hesse can be seen wearing the same "Spanish" costume worn in images above.