Posted 8 years ago
endeeringl…
(40 items)
i'll be putting up some of my newly acquired carte de visites, starting with this one.
this photo is of Austrian actor Josef Lewinsky, who had also been chosen by Gustav Klimt to be a subject of one of his pieces (Hofburgschauspieler Josef Lewinsky als Carlos, 1895). i've actually never seen this full un-cropped version of this shot, so i'm quite excited to have it.
i found this snippet about him to give a quick overview:
"Born Sept. 20, 1835, in Vienna; died there Feb. 27, 1907. Austrian actor.
Lewinsky began acting in 1855 in Austrian provincial theaters and made his debut in 1858 in the role of Franz Moor (The Robbers by Schiller) at the Vienna Burgtheater, where he worked for the rest of his career. He brought a philosophical approach to the villains and hypocrites he usually played, men who embodied the destructive force of evil—for example, Wurm in Cabal and Love by Schiller; Iago, Richard III, Polonius, and Shylock in Shakespeare’s Othello, Richard III, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice; Mephistopheles in Faust by Goethe; and Bishop Nicholas in The Pretenders by Ibsen.
Lewinsky stressed the importance of harmony between external and inner expressiveness and of speech patterns as part of precise and individualized characterizations. He toured Russia in 1895 and 1898 (St. Petersburg and Moscow) and praised the realistic art of the Malyi Theater."
(these images are NOT for use or re-posting anywhere unless permission by me is granted)
Thanks for the love CindyB and vetraio50!
Oddly awkward pose, isn't it? Thanks for the interesting commentary.
Yes, I was definitely struck by his pose the most. Glad I could provide something interesting!
Could this be Shakespeare's "King Lear"?
King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character. This actor does seem to fit the criteria of the unhinged Lear, doesn't he??
I don't believe I've read him having any role in King Lear, but he did have a big acting career, so I'm sure one of his known roles fits this.
I wonder how many of the roles you know of were to be played like a madman?
his roles usually involved portraying villains or evil, so it may be hard to place which role this was for, exactly