An Arts Fuse regular feature: the arts on stamps of the world.

By Doug Briscoe

Among the more celebrated personages born (or died) on November 23rd are French painter Claude Lorrain, Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, Fiddler on the Roof composer Jerry Bock, and Harpo Marx. There are many others who may be less well known to you.

Falla is not the only major figure in Spanish music to have been born on November 23rd. The earlier, by some 650 years, was Alfonso X, King of León and Castile (1221 – 4 April 1284). Alfonso el Sabio, Alfonso “the Wise”, is musically important for his compilation Cantigas de Santa Maria, consisting of 420 poems with musical notation. It’s thought that the king himself wrote some, perhaps many of these pieces.

Claude Lorrain was born Claude Gellée around the year 1600 and died on this day in 1682. He was primarily a landscape painter and lived most of his successful life in Italy. In France he is known as Claude Le Lorrain. The three stamps portray his Seaport at Sunset (1639, at the Louvre), Landscape with the Embarkation of Saint Paula Romana in Ostia (1639-40, at the Prado), and The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet (c1643, at the Met).

From the next century comes Russian painter Fyodor Alekseyev. His date of birth is also unknown, and can only roughly be placed at c1753-55 in Saint Petersburg. His father was the caretaker of the Imperial Academy of Arts and lobbied successfully for his son’s admission when the boy was about ten. At about the age of twenty Alekseyev went on a fellowship to Venice in hopes of learning to become a theater artist, but in the event this avenue was not to his taste, and he copied the old masters and painted landscapes instead. He stayed until 1777, and on his return to Russia found himself in hot—or at least tepid—water for having strayed from the intended path of learning. The academicians put him to work in the Theater Decoration School and left him there for about ten years. But he so impressed them with his View of the Palace Embankment from the Fortress (1794) that they made him an academician, too. He earned royal approval when Tsar Paul I chose him to paint scenes of Moscow in 1800, and one of these, presumably, is the article shown on the Soviet stamp of 1972. (I say “presumably”  because my stamp catalogue identifies the piece only as View of Moscow.) Despite taking on a teaching post at the Academy in 1803, Alekseyev was able to travel extensively through Russia, making sketches and watercolors. His pictures of such scenes and a Saint Petersburg series he executed in 1810 led him to be called the Russian Canaletto. He died in poverty, though, on this date in 1824 in the city of his birth. The Academy thoughtfully paid for his funeral.

We leave the visual arts for just a moment to salute the Czech dramatist Václav Kliment Klicpera (23 November 1792– 15 September 1859). In Prague he studied philosophy and medicine and was a teacher for most of his life. He is noted for his historical dramas that are said to have served as “the foundation of modern Czech drama”. His 57 theater pieces also include fairy tale plays and comedies in the manner of Plautus. He is also credited with a book of poems (Deklamovánky, 1841) that improbably combine humor and patriotism.

And back we go to painting for the Hungarian Károly Markó the Elder, one of the earlier landscape painters of his country (earlier, anyway, than Károly Markó the Younger). As he spent most of his later years in Italy, he is also known as Carlo Marco. His birth date presents some difficulty, with German, Polish, and Spanish Wikipedia all citing 25 September, 1793, but with Hungarian and English proffering 23 November, so here we are. He had an interest in art from youth, but studied and practiced engineering until he was about 25, when he made his first paintings and moved to Pest and then Vienna for further instruction. Markó lived in Eisenstadt for several years before undertaking a tour of Italy in 1832. He traveled throughout the country, finally settling near Florence, where he remained, apart from a visit to Hungary in 1853, for the rest of his days. His historical paintings and landscapes found patronage among the local aristocracy, and he was able to make a comfortable living. He died on 19 November 1860. The two stamps offer his View of Rome (1835) and Landscape of Appeggi (1848). Very similar to the latter is this Italian Landscape of 1857. Markó’s most celebrated picture, however, is one he made in his homeland, Visegrád (1826-30; not to be confused with Smetana’s Vyšehrad—from Má Vlast—which is a different place altogether).

Just a couple of weeks ago we introduced ourselves to the British engraver William Wyon. Now we meet his son Leonard Charles Wyon (23 November 1826 – 20 August 1891), who, one might say, was destined to succeed his father, given his birth in one of the houses in the Royal Mint. By the time he was 16 he had already made several medals, by 17 had exhibited at the Royal Academy, and by 18 had officially become his father’s assistant at the Mint. He did indeed succeed William as Modeler and Engraver on his progenitor’s death. That was in 1851. In 1860 Leonard made a portrait of Queen Victoria, called the “bun-head” portrait, that was in use on British coinage from 1860 to 1894. He also designed the portrait for Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Wyon made many dies for coins used in various parts of the British Empire and was responsible for some stamp designs, too, including, perhaps unexpectedly, images for some of the earliest Italian stamps (1863-77). Two of those are shown.

Our next subject is another painter, the Belgian neo-impressionist Théo van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 14 December 1926), born in Ghent, though his family spoke French. He studied there and at Brussels and had his work shown at the Salon of Ghent when he was only 18. In Haarlem three years later (1883) he made the acquaintance of William Merritt Chase, the first of numerous famous artists he would encounter, including John Singer Sargent, with whom van Rysselberghe would journey to Andalucia in 1884. In the meantime he had been one of the co-founders of the group Les XX, which would include James Ensor, Fernand Khnopff, Félicien Rops, and eventually Auguste Rodin and Paul Signac. Van Rysselberghe was, as the saying goes, blown away by the work of Monet and Renoir he saw in 1886 and, later the same year, was even more powerfully affected by the pointillism of Seurat. He adopted this style, perhaps most strikingly in his portrait of Alice Sèthe (1888), for quite a few years, abandoning it entirely only in 1910. The French stamp reproduces his Man at the Tiller (Homme á la barre, 1892). I must also add van Rysselberghe’s Portrait of André Gide of 1908, given that yesterday was Gide’s birthday.

Our next three consecutive artists all happen to have been Hispanic. Alberto Williams (1862 – June 17, 1952) was an Argentine composer, pianist, teacher, and conductor. Born in Buenos Aires, he was awarded a scholarship in 1882 to study at the Paris Conservatoire. While in France he also took private lessons with César Franck. Williams published his first piano pieces and completed his First Concert Overture during this time. On his return to Argentina in 1889, he toured the rural pampas and was introduced to the folk music of the region. From an early Romantic style, Williams turned to Impressionism and the use of folk themes and rhythms. In 1893 he founded the Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music (later known as Conservatorio Williams). There are nine symphonies, three tone poems, two concert overtures, and three violin sonatas, and it seems Williams wrote the lyrics for all his own vocal compositions, as well as writing books and manuals on theory. His son Amancio was a noted modernist architect.

Manuel de Falla (1876 – 14 November 1946) was, along with Albéniz and Granados, one of the most important Spanish composers of the early 20th century. As a young man he collaborated with Amadeo Vives on three zarzuelas from which only fragments survive. From 1907 to 1914 he lived in Paris, where he met Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Albéniz, Dukas, and Diaghilev. Falla then moved back to Spain, but left the country after the victory of the Nationalists in 1939 and settled in Argentina, where he died, having refused to return to Spain despite an offer of a large pension from Franco’s government. His remains, however, were returned to Spain in 1947, the year after his death.

José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican muralist on a footing with Diego Rivera, if less optimistic. Part of his introduction to art was fortuitous: it happened that his path to school passed by the shop windows where the illustrator José Guadalupe Posada worked in full view of the public. Young Orozco was fascinated. When he was 21, he lost his left hand while making fireworks. After art school his first jobs were as an illustrator for Mexico City newspapers. In his murals, Orozco was politically aware, conscious of the effect of machinery on the worker, and not content to be innocuously pleasing. From 1927 to 1934 Orozco lived and worked in the United States, creating such important pieces as the fresco Prometheus for Pomona College (1927) and The Epic of American Civilization (1932-34) at Dartmouth College. His fresco Hombre de fuego (Man of Fire, 1936-39) for the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, is shown on a Mexican stamp. Orozco also worked as a book illustrator (he provided images for the first edition of Steinbeck’s novel The Pearl in 1947), a lithographer, and a genre painter, as can be seen on the Panamanian stamp.

Lithuanian tenor Kipras Petrauskas (1885 – January 17, 1968) was so celebrated in his lifetime that he was posthumously honored on two separate Soviet postal cards (in 1977 and 1985), as well as one Lithuanian stamp of 1995. He was the brother of composer Mikas Petrauskas and is credited with having created (created, mind you) some 80 (!) operatic roles. For the record, so to speak, Grove’s Dictionary gives his birth date as 18 November (5 Nov. OS).

Most of us know British actor William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969) as Boris Karloff. He chose that name while first treading the boards in Canada in 1909, the idea being to protect his diplomat brothers from the humiliating embarrassment of having an actor in the family. (As it turned out, they were all delighted.) Karloff, while he was still Pratt and afterward, did a great deal of heavy labor in his young days, working on farms, digging ditches, and so on, with the result that he suffered all his life with back problems. On the other hand, it may have prepared him for walking around in the Frankenstein shoes, which weighed eleven pounds each. From stage work in Canada Karloff had moved into silent films in Hollywood, hitting it big with his role as the monster in James Whale’s 1931 film. Horror movies would be his mainstay for years, but among many other things he also appeared on Broadway in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace (1941), received a Tony nomination for his work opposite Julie Harris in Jean Anouilh’s play The Lark, and did a weekly children’s radio show in New York in 1950. Karloff did much voice work, including his famous take in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) and his recording of Peter and the Wolf with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. By the way, Karloff’s great-aunt was Anna Leonowens, the Anna of Anna and the King of Siam.

I keep showing the same stamp for all the Marx Brothers, and today I trot it out for one last time to pay tribute to Harpo. He was born Adolph Marx (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964), hated the name and changed it to Arthur, taught himself how to play the harp, and wound up with an even newer name. Here are a few surprising facts about him. He went to Moscow in 1933 as a goodwill ambassador, became a great friend of Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov and performed a routine with him on stage. Privately, Harpo was working as a secret courier delivering communiques hidden in his pant legs. As a friend of Alexander Woollcott, he was a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table. The character of Banjo in The Man Who Came to Dinner was based on Harpo, who later played the role on stage opposite Woolcott. Harpo made three harp music albums in the 1950s.

The important Russian avant-garde artist Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (November 23 [O.S. November 11], 1890 – December 30, 1941) is better known to the art world as El Lissitzky. Born not far from Smolensk, he studied architectural engineering in Germany and walked hundreds of miles through France and Italy investigating fine art. Compelled to return to Russia when World War I broke out, he continued his formal studies and worked for architectural firms. In 1919 he was asked by Marc Chagall to take up a teaching post at the new People’s Art School. At this time, Lissitzky began a series of paintings he called Proun (pronounced “pro-oon”), the meaning of which was never made entirely clear. One of these is seen on the German stamp of 2003. Lissitzky was a tireless innovator in the fields of typography, photomontage, exhibition displays, and graphic design, especially for books. He had considerable influence on the Bauhaus, De Stijl, and constructivist movements.

For our next four subjects we’ll turn to the lighter side of the arts. The Finnish illustrator Martta Wendelin (23 November 1893 – 1 March 1986) studied under Eero Järnefelt and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. She exhibited her paintings in 1925 to favorable reviews, but did the majority of her work illustrating school books, postcards, magazine covers, and the like. Wendel painted about 650 Christmas cards. (Here’s one that would raise an eyebrow or two at Hallmark.) A set of five stamps showing her work was issued by Finland in 1993.

The American industrial designer Donald Deskey (November 23, 1894 – April 29, 1989) is celebrated on a stamp showing one of his table lamps. He came from Minnesota, studied architecture at UC, and switched to the decorative arts. In the mid-1920s he founded a design consulting company in New York that specialized in furniture and textiles. In the 30s, he won the contract to design interiors for Radio City Music Hall. In the 40s he started a new firm, Donald Deskey Associates, which went on to create such familiar objects as the packaging for Crest toothpaste and the Tide detergent bullseye. Deskey was also responsible for the plywood product known as Weldtex, much used in the 50s. His company still operates out of Cincinnati.

It’s also the birthday of German graphic artist Elisabeth von Janota-Bzowski (1912 – August 15, 2012). Born in Kiel, she lived for some time in the United States, doing work for R. J. Reynolds, DuPont, and others, and making portraits of political figures (Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger) for major magazines. Beginning in 1977 she began designing stamps for the German postal service, and we’ve seen a pretty good number of them in these pages over the last months: stamps for Johannes Brahms, Anne Frank, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, Hermann Hesse, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Philipp Telemann, and the poets Hebel and Wieland. Since we’ve seen all of those already, here’s one she did for Stamp Day in 1981 showing mail coaches, employees, and customers c1855. Elisabeth von Janota-Bzowski, who sold her first art as a teenager, died just a few years ago at the age of 99.

From Christmas cards, commercial logos, and postage stamps we come to comic books. Canadian artist Leo Bachle (November 23, 1923 – May 2003) was a precocious practitioner of comic book art, having created at the age of 15 the character of Johnny Canuck. This was in 1941, and Johnny’s first adventure (in Dime Comics, February 1942) was to face off against Hitler himself. The character was a great morale booster for the war effort. We see him on a stamp from a recent retrospective set. Bachle’s career in comics was short-lived, as in 1950 he moved to New York, changed his name to Les Barker, and started doing standup comedy, at which he was quite successful, working on the same stage with headliners like Liberace, Rich Little, and Marlene Dietrich.

We back up a bit chronologically speaking to catch up with composer Viktor Kosenko (23 November [O.S. 11 November] 1896 – 3 October 1938). He was Ukrainian, although he was born in Saint Petersburg and grew up in Warsaw. The family returned to Saint Petersburg on the outbreak of World War I. Kosenko was remarkably gifted with an astonishing memory and facility in transposition, and he had perfect pitch. He taught at Kiev, but lived mostly in Zhytomyr, where he began his career as a pianist. Kosenko wrote two concertos, an overture and a Moldavian Poem (he made a study of Moldavian folk music), chamber and piano works, including three sonatas and a number of children’s pieces. He died of kidney cancer at the age of 42.

Jerry Bock’s main claim to fame was as the composer of Fiddler on the Roof (1964), with lyrics by his partner Sheldon Harnick. They had also had a hit with Fiorello! five years earlier. Both musicals were awarded Tonys, and Fiorello! received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Born in New Haven, Bock (November 23, 1928 – November 3, 2010) grew up in Queens and studied the piano in childhood. While still in college he wrote a successful musical called Big As Life. He worked with lyricist Larry Holofcener for television and on Broadway. Fiddler racked up nine Tony Awards and ran for over 3,000 performances, the first musical to do so. Israel issued a nice set of three stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of the show.

The Indian singer Geeta Dutt made her name mostly in cinema, though she also recorded separately. Born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri on 23 November 1930, she had her first big success with the film Do Bhai (1947) with music by S.D. Burman. With her sweet voice and engaging style she was soon dubbed Bangal ka jadu (the magic from Bengal). She met future husband Guru Dutt while working under his direction on the movie Baazi (1951), starring Dev Anand. After Guru Dutt’s death in 1964, Geeta suffered a nervous breakdown and lived only another eight years, dying of cirrhosis on 20 July 1972 at the age of 41.

Krzysztof Penderecki (pen-de-RET-ski) is one of the few living composers seen on stamps, this one having been issued four years ago to celebrate his 80th birthday. Born in 1933, he first studied violin before turning exclusively to composing, and his first international success was with the hair-raising Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima of 1960. Since the 70s, when he was teaching at Yale, his music has tended to reflect more traditional language. Penderecki’s grandmother was Armenian, and his Psalmus no. 3, written to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, had its première at Carnegie Hall in May of 2015.

This date in 1963 saw the broadcast of a new television series on the BBC. The four-part drama An Unearthly Child, starring William Hartnell, introduced world’s longest running science fiction program, Doctor Who. For the 50th anniversary, Great Britain issued this five-stamp souvenir sheet in 2013.

No stamp for Romanian-born German language poet Paul Celan (born Paul Antschel, 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970).

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A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a B.A. in English, Doug Briscoe worked in Boston classical music radio, at WCRB, WGBH, and WBUR, for about 25 years, beginning in 1977. He has the curious distinction of having succeeded Robert J. Lurtsema twice, first as host of WGBH’s weekday morning classical music program in 1993, then as host of the weekend program when Robert J.’s health failed in 2000. Doug also wrote liner notes for several of the late Gunther Schuller’s GM Recordings releases as well as program notes for the Boston Classical Orchestra. For the past few years he’s been posting a Facebook “blog” of classical music on stamps of the world, which has now been expanded to encompass all the arts for The Arts Fuse.