Title: Typed Letter Signed by Paderewski, with Superb Content, Framed Together with an Original Photograph of the Actress Margaret Anglin Signed by Arnold Genthe.
Description: Palace Hotel, San Francisco, August 30th, 1915. 1915. "YOURS IS THE POWER OF GREAT ART.." - sc One page. Over 70 words typed on 10 inch high by 7 inch wide "Palace Hotel / San Francisco" stationery, with the hotels pictorial logo at the top left. In this superb letter addressed to the actress Margaret Anglin, the great concert pianist and composer expresses his admiration "Though exhausted by my performance in Festival Hall last Saturday, I went to the Greek Theater in Berkeley in the evening at your very kind invitation to see your performance of Medea and to hear the beautiful music my dear friend Damrosch wrote to it. / I was completely captivated by your wonderful performance and enjoyed every moment. / Yours is the power of great art. / With sincere admiration, I remain / Very respectfully yours," boldly signed "I. J. Paderewski" in black ink. Slightly creased and once folded for mailing, the letter is attractively matted and framed with a superb 9 inch high by 5-1/2 inch wide original photograph by Arnold Genthe. The image depicts the lovely Margaret Anglin attired as Medea, in flowing black robe with black veil. The stunning image is signed in black ink by the photographer Arnold Genthe at bottom right. A light crease to the bottom right corner of the photo touches the first two letters of the photographer's signature.
These two wonderful related items are handsomely matted together and framed under glass.
The great Polish concert pianist and composer, Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was also the first Premier of the Polish Republic (1919).
Genthe, Arnold. Photographer. Born in Berlin in 1869, Genthe died in New Milford, CT on August 9, 1942. He studied classical philosophy, archeology, and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin and Jena, receiving a PhD in 1894. He studied at the Sorbonne in Paris from 1894 to 1895. A linguist, he was proficient in eight modern and ancient languages. Genthe moved to San Francisco in 1895 as a tutor and later opened his first photographic portrait studio. He had begun photographing as a hobby and became well known for a series of photographs showing life at the turn of the century in San Francisco's Chinatown, where old Chinese customs were still evident. To record the natural flow of life, he usually worked on the street with a concealed camera, capturing fleeting moments. He lost his equipment in the 1906 earthquake, but borrowing a camera, he compellingly documented the shattered buildings, devastating fire, and stunned survivors.
A member of San Francisco's Bohemian Club, a circle of artists and writers, Genthe had little difficulty moving amongst & photographing the artists & performers of New York when he moved to that City in 1911. His portraits, in the soft-focused romantic style popular at the time displays an insight and understanding of his subjects. Among his most famous works of that period are his much published photographs of Isadora Duncan and her troupe.
Genthe photographed hundreds of celebrities, not only from the dance and theatre world, but also financial & political personalities, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Initially working with gelatin dry-plate negatives and film negatives in platinum and silver prints, he began using color in 1908 and produced many well-known monochromes.
(Ref.: Browne & Partnow: Macmillan Biographical Encyclopedia of Photographic Artists and Innovators; and Witkin & London: The Photograph Collector's Guide).
Anglin, Margaret. (1876-1958). Canadian-American Actress, accounted one of the finest of her day. Wife of author/playwright Henry Hull. Born in Parliament House, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Timothy Warren Anglin (1822-1896) a Canadian journalist and legislator was twice Speaker of Dominion House of Commons, while her brother Francis Alexander Anglin (1865-1933) was a Canadian Supreme Court judge. Raised in Canada, educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Montreal, she left to become a pupil at the Empire Dramatic School in New York City, when Charles Frohman engaged her for her first professional appearance (1894) in the Civil War play Shenandoah. After a season with James O'Neill's company, she joined that of E.H. Sothern. Her first outstanding success was as Roxanne in Richard Mansfield's production of Cyrano do Begerac (1898). She was later leading lady of Frohman's stock company at the Empire, appearing in a variety of plays, including Mrs. Dane's Defence, Diplomacy, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Among her later successes were The Devil's Disciple and Camille, in which she appeared with Henry Miller. "In Chicago in 1903, she unearthed an obscure poet professor named William Vaughn Moody, who had written a play called The Sabine Woman. She and Henry Miller gave it a one-night tryout in Chicago. After the first act, she discovered she did not possess sole rights to the play. She called the author in and told him the contract would have to be re-written or she would not finish the play. This was accomplished and the play went on to its conclusion. It was wildly cheered by critics. The next season she brought it to New York under the title The Great Divide. It was one of the most spectacular successes of its day and she and Mr. Miller toured it for several seasons." A tall, big-boned woman, with serene, tragic features, and a rich voice, she was said to be at her best in statuesque roles where she could employ what Percy Hammond called her "roomy technique." For roles of sheer dramatic power she was unexcelled and in 1909 she gave he first classic production, Sophocles' Antigone in the Greek Theatre in Berkely, California. It was a tumultuous success. Thousands were turned away. Yet one of her great personal triumphs was as Joan in The Trial of Joan of Arc of which Alexander Woollcott said: "As the Maid, Miss Anglin plays with an eloquence and force she never surpassed. Working against her as she enters is all the deep prejudice in favor of a slim, frail, dauntless girl. Ten minutes after she enters, you surrender, and accept her as St. Joan. By some inner power she possesses an actual transmutation takes place." She went on to play Iphegenia in Tauris and Medea, Electra and Iphigenia in Aulis; and such Shakespearean parts as Viola, Rosalind and Cleopatra, all of which she played on tour.
Although usually cast in emotional roles, she played comedy occasionally. Among her most successful were Green Stockings, Billeted, and Caroline. In the latter part of her career her best known roles were Vivian Hunt in The Woman of Bronze (1927), Lady Fairfax in Diplomacy (1929), and Lady Mary Crabbe in Fresh Fields (1935). 'In 1927, in recognition of her achievements, she was awarded the Laetare Medal of Notre Dame Univesity.
Sadly, in her later years, describing a scene which brings to mind Gloria Swanson's role in Sunset Boulevard, a young author, Harding Lemay, recounts how, planning a "comeback to the Broadway she had left a decade earlier", Margaret Anglin hired him to work Pinero's Dandy Dick into a vehicle to bring her back to the stage. In 1958, Miss Anglin died in a nursing home just outside Toronto. She was 81. Very good .
Keywords: MUSIC; CLASSICAL; CONCERT PIANIST; AUTOGRAPH; IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI; COMPOSER; TYPED LETTER SIGNED; SIGNATURE; TLS; PREMIER OF THE POLISH REPUBLIC; POLAND; SUPERB CONTENT; MEDEA; MARGARET ANGLIN; ACTRESS; SHAKESPEARIAN; GREEK CLASSICS; DRAMA; ARNOLD GENTH
- Book number: 25332
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