Europe and America, 1919 - 1937
Aselec%on of early intaglio prints by Austrian/American ar%st Max Pollak (1886 – 1970), highligh%ng many of the Jazz Age's leading dancers as well as some whose lives are now veiled in obscurity. Pollak studied at the Austrian Academy of Art beginning in 1902, and traveled throughout Italy, France, and Holland following gradua%on to further his ar%s%c research. With the onset of World War I, however, he was conscripted into service as an official painter for the Austrian Army, capturing harrowing images of life in war %me.
Returning from the front, Pollak spent the Roaring 20s capturing the wild nightlife of the ci%es he lived in, especially Vienna. Among the people he met were the glamorous dancers of the ballet and Modern dance scenes, whose ranks included people from throughout Europe as well as Asia and the United States, all hoping to find like-minded friends in a rapidly changing world. By 1933, much of Vienna's nightlife will have been snuffed out by the Nazi regime.
This collec%on is an homage to that %me and those places, and is just a small example of Pollak's vast output. It illustrates the joyful abandon of his intaglio technique, developing a fluid spontaneity of line and painterly tonality with an otherwise rigid, unforgiving medium
Elsa Krueger
Drypoint with color aqua1nt detail, 1919. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on ivory laid Van Gelder Zonen paper. Reference: Triton Museum of Art, SF, 1949: Pollak in Retrospect catalogue, cat. no. 36. 16-1/2 x 13" platemark.
Inventory no. 23635.
Elsa Krueger (b. ca. 1893, d. ca. 1941) was a Russian dancer, silent film actor, and founder of the Russiche roman%sche Ballec (Russian Roman%c Ballet) in Berlin.
Born in Moscow, she began training in ballet as a young child and performing professionally by age thirteen. She also pursued Modern and world dance techniques and quickly rose to popularity as "Queen of the tango." In 1917 she moved to Odessa and finally, in 1920, to Berlin, where she con%nued to perform throughout the 1920s. It's assumed she died in Berlin around 1941 as no records of her ac%vity since then exist, despite an immensely successful and influen%al early career
Anna Duncan
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on thin ivory laid paper. 183/4 x 15-7/16" platemark. Inventory no. DASL146.
Anna Duncan, born Anna Denzler in Switzerland in 1894, was a student of famed American Modernist dancer Isadora Duncan. She began learning from Isadora in 1905 and would become a member of the "Isadorables," the six preferred students who Isadora toured with in the 1910s, all of whom legally changed their surnames to Duncan for professional recogni%on.
Aier the troupe's contract ended in 1919, Anna and the rest of the Isadorables con%nued to perform in Europe, entertaining the troops of World War I Paris. Anna eventually returned to the U.S. to teach dancing and to perform in both film and stage produc%ons Anna Duncan died in New York in 1980.
Tanzgruppe Ellen Tels: Mira Cirul, Nina Schelemskaya (War Dance)
Etching and color aqua1nt, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1on 38/50. Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 19 x 21-11/16" platemark. Inventory no. 22606.
A performance of the "Triegstanz," or "War Dance," by the Ellen Tells Dance Group. "Ellen Tels (aka Ellen Rabanek [1885–1944])… pursued a kind of pantomimic dance derived from Delsar%an principles, although she, too, had studied with Mordkin. Her 'dance idylls' acracted audiences in Germany, Austria, and even England between 1911 and 1914, partly because she aligned pantomimic movement with literary scenarios, as in her Chrisis (1912), coordinated with music by Reinhold Glière, which evoked ero%c texts by Pierre Louys." (Suritz 407). This image features dancers Mira Cirul and Nina Schelemskya (later Lady Bing), both well-known dancers who trained in ballet before pursuing modern dance.
Lo Hesse
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on ivory simile-vellum paper. 14-1/8 x 16-1/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23003.
Lo Hesse (1889 - 1983) was a German dancer, model, and muse of Avant Garde designer Walter Schnackenberg in Berlin and Munich in the 1910s. She was known for her extravagant costumes and her performances with dancer Joachim von Seewitz.
Hesse was oien the subject of sculptor and porcelain ceramicist Constan%n Solzer-Defan%, who created several figurines of the fashionable chanteuse. In 1919 Hesse was offered a posi%on with the Vienna State Opera, which she turned down in order to go on tour in South America.
In this image Hesse dons a Schnackenberg-designed costume for the ballet/pantomime "Primula Vera," performed around 1920.
Napierska (I)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, printed a la poupeé, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (only around 15 impressions, as later noted by ar1st in lower margin).
Printed by Pollak on ivory simile-vellum paper. 21-1/16 x 12-3/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23007.
Silent film actress and dancer Violeca (a.k.a. Violece) Napierska was born around the turn of the 20th century in Germany. Much of her rela%vely short career was spent in Berlin working on silent films with Lee Parry, Richard Eichberg, and Bela Lugosi (also her one-%me lover), from the years 1919 to 1926. She then moved to France to film Rene La Somp%er's "The Small Parisian" with George Biscot; following this, she re%red from the silent film industry.
Napierska (II)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, printed a la poupeé, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 30/150 (only around 15 impressions printed, as later noted by ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on ivory similevellum paper. 23-1/16 x 14-15/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23440.
Here, Napierska is depicted in an elaborate cabaret costume, complete with a giant, tasseled headdress and ephemeral flowing ribbons. Despite the stunning ousit, Pollak has made Violeca's large, drama%c eyes the focal point of the piece.
With the advent of sound in film, Napierski made a handful of support character appearances in "talkies" in the 1930s, and later in the Italian film "La Vena d'Oro" (1955), her last known professional act which is also apparently the last record of her whereabouts. Her death date remains unknown.
Ronny Johansson (Polka)
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1920. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 14-1/4 x 11-15/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23017.
Ronny Irene Johansson was born in 1891 in Latvia. Sent to a Swedish boarding school, it was there that she established a professional dancing career, debu%ng in Weisbaden in 1916. Aier touring Europe, she moved to the U.S. in 1925 to pursue Modern dance. She studied in Los Angeles under Ruth St. Denis at the Denishawn School of Dance, and then under Margaret H'Doubler, who established the first dance major in the United States at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was there that Johansson earned her degree in 1928.
Johansson became known for her self-choreographed solo performances and was considered a rising star in Modern dance by the famed New York Times cri%c John Mar%n. However, her career in the U.S. was cut short by the Depression, and she returned to Sweden in the early 1930s. There, she founded the Swedish Dance Teachers Associa%on, opened her own school of dance, and became a vocal supporter of women's rights. In 1977, through the recommenda%on of Ingmar Bergman, Johansson was awarded the state ar%s%c salary. She died in Stockholm, Sweden in 1979.
Isa Marsen (Blau)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1921. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 14-1/4 x 6-1/4" platemark. Inventory no. 23009.
Very licle is found on the life of Isa Marsen, a Viennese actor and dancer ac%ve from the 1910s to about 1921. Notably, Pollak's portraits of Marsen, along with several other dancers, were men%oned in The Studio magazine's 1923 ar%cle on the ar%st's thennew series of dancer etchings (Vol. 85-86, p. 345).
Pollak appears to have rendered this par%cular subject with great care, depic%ng a delicate beauty in a care-free pose, her hand idly pulling at the ribbon decora%ng her scandalously short dress
Isa Marsen (a.k.a. Isa
Marsen als Bub – Isa
Marsen as boy)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1921 –'22. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 14-1/4 x 6-1/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23008.
Here, Pollak has suggested that Marsen is costumed as a boy, though the image borders more on a genderless theme and is exemplary of the androgynous style oien adopted in 1920s and '30s cabaret.
Mila Cirul
Drypoint with color aqua1nt detail, 1924. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 16-3/16 x 7-1/2" platemark. Inventory no. 23012.
Mira Cirul (1901 – 1977) was a Latvian dancer who trained at the Moscow Ballet under Mikael Mordkin before pursuing modern dance in Vienna. She studied under Ellen Tels, with whom she started the Ellen Tels School in 1919. She eventually became known for her solo work as well, performing in the operas of Berlin, Vienna, and Hanover, taking up a brief s%nts with the Munich Dance Congress and Margarethe Wallmann's Tanzegruppe.
In 1932 Cirul moved to Paris where she found fame as an avant-garde performer, known for her passionate performances that contrasted with the classical composi%ons she danced to. She con%nued to dance un%l the 1940s when she began teaching, becoming a mentor to many of Paris' most famous modern dancers un%l her re%rement in 1962. In this image, Cirul wears a costume designed by Georg Kirsta for the 1924 produc%on of "Rus%c Dance" by Grete Kolliner.
Gipsy Rhouma-Je
Color aqua1nt with etching, 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 2/150 (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. Reference: Triton Museum of Art, SF, 1949: Pollak in Retrospect catalogue, cat. no. 42. 17-1/4 x 13-3/16" platemark.
Inventory no. 22575.
American dancer and actor Dorothy "Gypsy Rhoumaje" Shaw was born in Arkansas in 1908. She pursued a career in performing arts from an early age, working as a young teen in the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles before being discovered by an agent. She soon established herself as a sought-aier comedic actress and a dancer in both the U.S. and abroad. She was best known for her self-styled dancing, choreographing numbers that borrowed from Hungarian, Burmese, and La%n American styles. At age 17 she was discovered by a European agent who secured a s%nt for her in the Picadilly Revels cabaret in London.
Not long aier, she secured a job as a dancer in Paris, where her star rose as a popular performer in line with Nina Payne and Frances White. From Paris her career took off, and she traveled throughout France, Italy, England, and Eastern Europe, as well as New York and other American metropolises, working as a dancer and actress on both the stage and in silent films. Unfortunately, her whereabouts aier 1939 remain unknown.
Gypsy Rhouma-Je
Color aqua1nt with etching, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 8/100 (only around 15 impressions printed, as later noted by the ar1st in the lower margin). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 15-7/16 x 6-5/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23888.
While the spelling is different, the subject is the same. Here, Dorothy Shaw, a.k.a. Gypsy Rouhma-Je, appears in one of her comedic performances, wearing a kaleidoscopic pacerned dress, a shortbrimmed boater hat, and holding a %ny red umbrella.
AlberMna Rasch
Drypoint with handapplied color, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Proof from an unstated edi1on (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 16-1/2 x 9-3/4" platemark. Inventory no. 24050.
Dancer Alber%na Rasch (1891 – 1967) had a prolific career as a ballerina and choreographer in Europe and the United States She was accepted into the Imperial Vienna State Opera House at age fourteen Around 1912, as the American jazz scene found popularity across the pond, her interest in Modern dance took the place of ballet and she traveled to the United States to dance with various opera companies in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. She eventually became the principle dancer for the Century opera Company.
Remaining in the U.S., Rasch formed her own dance troupe, the Alber%na Rasch Dancers, around 1919. The troupe toured the U.S. and Europe throughout the 1920s and '30s, while Rasch also con%nued her own dancing career in tandem. Soon, she established herself as a renowned choreographer in both Broadway and Hollywood
Drypoint, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Proof from an unstated edi1on (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 19-3/8 x 18" platemark. Inventory no. 22810.
Rasch was considered the first and, at the %me, only female dance director in Hollywood in the 1930s, contrac%ng with Metro Goldman Mayer, and she performed with the Ziegfield Girls and Josephine Baker She con%nued to work un%l the late 1950s when declining health led her to re%re and secle in Woodland Hills, California. She died there in 1967.
Bebe Daniels
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 3/150 (only around 10 impressions printed, as later noted by the ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on delicate cream laid paper. 23-3/8 x 19" platemark. Inventory no. 23437.
Bebe Daniels, born Phyllis Virginia Daniels, was born in Dallas, Texas on January 14, 1901. Her parents were both in the theater business and together they operated a traveling stock company. Bebe began ac%ng as a child and was in films by the age of seven, aier her family had secled in Los Angeles.
A long and prolific career included silent films and musicals under contract with RKO and Warner Brothers studios, as well as "talkies," stage work, dance choreography, and film produc%on. She toured throughout the U.S. and in Europe as a dancer and actor, remaining in London for the dura%on of the Second World War and taking a job as a radio personality for the BBC, in an effort to uplii Bri%sh listeners throughout the conflict. These efforts were honored with a Medal of Freedom award by president Harry S. Truman.
Bebe and her family eventually returned to the U.S. where she worked as a film producer. She divided her %me between Los Angeles and London, where she died in 1971.
Elise Maillet
Drypoint, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed Pollak on an1que-white laid paper. 15-7/8 x 7-1/4" platemark. Inventory no. 23877.
As yet, no informa%on on the dancer Elise Maillet has been found. The image is exemplary of Pollak's knack for ephemeral linework, coaxing the finely muscled form of a dancer, clutching a billowing veil, with minimal distrac%on.
Herma Prach
Drypoint and aqua1nt, printed in colors, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on 10/150 (likely fewer than 50 impressions). Printed by Pollak on ivory simile-vellum paper. Reference: Mills College Art Museum accession no. 1999.13.1. 15-3/4 x 19-5/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23990.
Licle informa%on is found on the dancer Herma Prach, though photos abound. She was a student of Isadora Duncan and is men%oned in Duncan's posthumously published book Memoirs (Zurich/Leipzig/Vienna Amalthea, 1928). In this image, Pollak applies and economy of line and spare coloring, to elegant effect.
Hilde Holger
Etching and drypoint with surface toning, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as "P.P. Only print" (Printer's proof and only print; RARE). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 17-5/16 x 13" platemark. Inventory no. 23861.
Hilde Holger (born Hilde Sofer, 19082001) was a Viennese Modernist dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. She began dancing at age six, and would go on to study under famed pioneer of Expressionst dance Gertrud Bodenwieser. She found success early on and was touring throughout Europe in her teens. In 1926, at age eighteen, she formed her own dance workshop, the New School for Arts in Vienna, Austria.
A Jewish woman, Holger had to flee Germany in 1938 with Hitler's rise to power. With help from friends she was able to travel to India, where she learned various forms of classical Indian dance. She opened another dance school in Bombay in 1941 and befriended ar%sts such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Ram Gupal, and many others. She relocated to England in 1948, forming the Holger Modern Ballet Group and the Hilde Holger School of Contemporary Dance.
Holger became a dance therapist for children with severe learning disabili%es while con%nuing her professional dance and teaching careers. By the %me of her death in 2001 she was s%ll teaching from her home in London. Her legacy con%nues in the form of dance schools and workshops formed by her students, numerous documentaries and books, and an archive of her life and work found at HildeHolger.com.
Hoffman Girl:
Florence
Etching and color
aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream laid paper. 14-13/16 x 10-1/4" platemark.
Inventory no. 23860.
An image of the American dancer
Florence Kolinsky, a.k.a. "Miss Florence" (ca. 1906 – 1996) in costume at Paris' Moulin Rouge, performing with the Hoffman Girls dance group in 1924
Florence began dancing as a young child, trained at the Keith Theater in Philadelphia aier seeing Anna Pavlova perform and wan%ng to become a dancer, herself. She was soon hired as by the Rosebuds Troupe in Atlan%c City and as part of a pre-show acroba%c act in various movie theaters. In 1919 another Keith Theater instructor, William J. Herman, recommended the then-13-year-old Florence to the founder of the Hoffman Girls dance troupe, Gertrude Hoffman. Though hesitant because of Florence's age, her talent outweighed concerns over hiring a child and Gertrude claimed the girl was sixteen as the troupe began touring the East Coast, followed soon by a tour of Europe.
Florence proved to be a popular performer, and was given a variety of featured acts with the Hoffman Girls and the Ziegfield Folie throughout the 1920s. From 1927 to 1937, she paired with dancer Julio Alvarez to perform at various clubs in New York and Paris. Aier marrying Harry Maslow in 1937, she re%red from performing. She died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.
Hoffman Girl: Lily Smith
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca, 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (only around 10 impressions, as later noted by ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on delicate cream laid paper. 14-3/4 x 61/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23872.
Very licle is found on the Gertrude Hoffman Girl troupe dancer Lily Smith. She performed with the troupe in Paris at the Moulin Rouge in 1924, and in 1927 she was in the play A Night in Spain at the Winter Garden in New York.
KiNy Starling
Drypoint with hand-applied color, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Proof from an unstated edi1on (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream laid paper. 14-1/16 x 6-1/16" platemark. Inventory no. 24048.
Kicy Starling was a German-American dancer who performed in London. Despite her apparent popularity at the %me, licle is found on the dancer, herself. Ar%sts were drawn to her, and the graphic ar%st Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1949) created at least three highly stylized posters in 1914 featuring the dancer. The most wellknown posters proclaim her to be the "Deutsch-Amerikanische Excentric Tänzerin" (German American eccentric dancer) and another the "London Darling."
Pollak was greatly inspired by Kicy, crea%ng at least three images of her in the 1920s and '30s.
Die Tanzerin KiNy Starling
Drypoint with hand-applied color, ca. 1925. Pencil signed; uniden1fied remarque in image, lower lec. Proof, from outside of the edi1on of 120 (likely fewer than 50 printed). Printed by Pollak ivory similevellum paper. 19-1/2 x 17-11/16" platemark. Inventory no. 22895.
In this image Kicy Starling holds up a small monkey in the palm of her hand, and in the lower lei corner of the image is an uniden%fied seal of a stylized Greek figure. These unusual addi%ons to the image do not, unfortunately, give us any further insight into Kicy's life or career.
KiNy Starling
Drypoint with hand-applied color, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Proof from an unstated edi1on (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak ivory simile-vellum paper. 14-1/8 x 6" platemark. Inventory no. 23011.
Maria Ley
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream laid paper. 14-1/8 x 12-1/8" platemark. Inventory no. 24059.
Maria Ley-Piscator (1898 - 1999), born Friederike Czada and known in her early career as Maria Ley, was a dancer, actor, theater director, and choreo-grapher. She trained in dance and theater from a young age, achieving widespread popularity throughout Europe by the late 1910s.
Ley's early life was fraught with personal strife. Her first husband Robert Bauer disappeared in the twen%es. Her second husband, AEG heir Frank Deutsch, commiced suicide in Paris aier Hitler came to power. In 1937 she married for the third %me and final %me to director Erwin Piscator, with whom she immigrated to New York in 1938 as war loomed on the horizon. Together they founded and managed the Drama%c Workshop at the New York School of Social Research, eventually coaching Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, and many others who would go on to find interna%onal fame Ley-Piscator would ul%mately direct over fiiy Broadway and off-Broadway produc%ons.
In 1951 Erwin Piscator was forced to leave the U.S. for Germany as McCarthyism gained trac%on. Maria con%nued opera%ng the Workshop, occasionally traveling to Berlin to see Piscator's produc%ons. Aier Piscator's death in 1966 Maria led the Piscator Founda%on in New York and remained ac%ve in the theater world as a teacher at the University of Southern Illinois and the State University of New York. She con%nued to work well into her 90s, and died at the age 101 in Manhacan in 1999.
MarieNa de Grisogono
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Unnumbered, from an edi1on of around six (as later noted by the ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 15-1/8 x 8-15/16" platemark. Inventory no. 24051.
Nothing is found on the life or career of Marieca de Grisgono, save for a men%on of her as one of two Viennese dancers pursued by writer and editor of The Dial literary magazine, Scofield Thayer, who lived in Vienna from 1921 to about 1926.
The name "Mariece de Grisogono" may have been a pseudonym, especially if she wanted to hide her ancestry in the upheaval of Europe between the First and Second World War.
Maru Kosjera
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on Van Gelder Zonen wove paper. 14-1/8 x 7-11/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23871.
Licle is found on the dancer Maru Kosjera, though she appears to have been a prolific performer in Europe in the 1920s and '30s. She toured with the Viennese choreographer Ellinor Tordis in the mid 1920s.
Mura Ziperovitch (Mura Dehn)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on 29/50. Printed by Pollak on delicate cream wove. 15-13/16 x 12-9/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23882.
Dancer-turneddocumentarian Mura Dehn was born Mura Ziperovitch in 1905 in Russia. Though she was trained in ballet from an early age, it wasn't un%l she began taking modern dance from famed choreographer Ellen Tels that she became passionate about the dance art form. By 1925 she had moved to Paris to pursue a dance career. While there, she was introduced to the performances of Josephine Baker, whose "jazz dancing" was wildly popular in the metropolitan city. This experience changed the course of Dehn's career, and in 1930, she moved with her husband, Adolf Dehn, to the U.S. to be nearer to the birthplace of jazz. Secling in New York, she soon found work as a dancer at the Savoy Ballroom. The famed venue would become central to her life, first as a performer, and then as a music and dance documentarian
Dehn recognized the significance of Black American music and dancers and, having witnessed the erasure of the work of her European friends with the onset of the Second World War, was eager to document this new wave of expression for future genera%ons. Over the course of several decades she filmed, edited, and compiled the reels of film she took at the Savoy beginning in the late 1930s to the 1980s. She released The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900-1986 in 1987.
Mura Ziperovitch Dehn died in New York in 1985.
Niddy Impekoven
Drypoint, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 26/150 (likely fewer than 50 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream laid paper. 13-1/4 x 10-13/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23886.
Luise "Niddy" Impekova was a German dancer, choreographer, and silent film actor born in Berlin in 1904. She trained in ballet from an early age and was considered a child prodigy, performing publicly for the first %me in 1910 at just five years old. She quickly began a professional dancing career that took her throughout Germany, developing a style that borrowed from the physically expressive Modernism of Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, but which was s%ll greatly influenced by her ballet studies and was set almost exclusively to classical music.
The pressures of performing, along with the stresses of the First World War, led Impekova to have a nervous breakdown in 1919, and she was sent to receive treatment in Switzerland to recuperate Following her recovery in 1920 she returned to Germany and con%nued her dancing career, choreographing her own work, and quickly became popular outside of her homeland.
She toured throughout the United Kingdom, the U.S., Java, Ceylon, and Prague in the 1920s and the early 1930s. Ul%mately, she re%red from dancing as Nazis rose to power, moving permanently to Switzerland in 1934. She wrote a book about her life in 1955, %tled Memoirs of a Child Prodigy
Niddy Impekova died in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, in 2002.
Nina Schelemskaya
– or, Ballet
Ellen Tels, Paris
Drypoint with handapplied color, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as XVIII/XX; likely a working proof; total edi1on not stated. Printed by Pollak on sturdy cream laid paper. 9-3/4 x 5-3/16" platemark. Inventory no. 24049.
Lady Nina SchelemskayaSchelesnaya Bing, Russian ballet dancer, was the wife of Sir Rudolph Bing who served as the general manager of New York's Metropolitan Opera from 1950 to 1972.
Before her marriage, Lady Bing, who was born in Moscow, was a member of the Ellen Tels Ballet, a Russian company. Both she and Sir Rudolph, who married in 1928, were naturalized BriQsh ciQzens. Bing died in New York in 1983.
Ronny Johanssen
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 14-3/8 x 6-1/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23873.
Another image of Swedish dancer Ronny Johanssen. In this one she wears a diaphanous and risqué dress with a high hem, her expression mischievous
Tamara Karsavina
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 27/100 (only around 30 printed, as later noted by the ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on an1quewhite laid paper. 18-3/16 x 13-13/16" platemark.
Inventory no. 23883.
Tamara Platonovna
Karsavina was born in St. Petersburg, Russian on March 9, 1885, daughter of principle dancer of the Imperial Ballet Platon Karsavin. She was studied under Vera Joukova and her father, and in 1894 she was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School. Though famous for being one of the most demanding and exac%ng dance schools in the world, Karsavina graduated ahead of schedule in 1902, when she was eighteen. She became one of the youngest prima ballerinas in the Imperial Ballet soon thereaier.
Her popularity grew and she was frequently invited to perform in Paris with the Ballets Russes, oien with famed dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, and when poli%cal upheaval gripped Russia in 1918, she moved there with her husband, Bri%sh diplomat Henry Bruce. Her reputa%on as one of Russia's foremost prima ballerias alongside Anna Pavlova made them rivals, but, despite this, they were also friends. Among Karsavina's legacies was her key role in establishing the Royal Ballet in London.
Tamara Karsavina died in London in 1978. Such was her reputa%on that her passing was commemorated by a plaque on the wall of St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden. Under her name it is wricen, "prima ballerina absoluta."
Thea von Ujj
Etching and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (presumed fewer than 30 impressions).
Printed by Pollak on ivory laid paper. 16-5/8 x 11-11/16" platemark.
Inventory no. 23441.
Nothing is found on the dancer Max Pollak called "Thea v. Ujj", (likely Thea von Ujj). It is possible that the name was a pseudonym or she married before any records could be made of her career.
Despite this, Pollak's depic%on of a young woman wearing only red sa%n bows is exemplary of the cheeky ero%cism of 1920s cabaret.
Trude Somner
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 4/100 (only around 12 printed as later noted by the ar1st.) Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 17-3/4 x 13-3/4" platemark.
Inventory no. 23885.
Nothing is found on Trude Somner. It is possible that the name was a pseudonym or she married before any records could be made of her career.
Florence Mills (a.k.a. Girl from MarMnique)
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1925. Pencil signed. Edi1on of around 10 impressions, as later noted by the ar1st in the lower margin. Printed by Pollak on ivory simile-vellum paper. 14-11/16 x 6-3/8" platemark. Inventory no. 23004.
African American dancer and singer Florence Mills was born in 1896 to formerly enslaved parents John and Nellie Winfrey. Less well known than her flapper-era successors, she is often cited as the catalyst for Black American women performers of the early 20th century. She began dancing at age four, and with her sisters she formed a Vaudeville act that performed for foreign diplomats. In 1916 she learned tap dance from famed dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, and soon began touring with dance troupes in the southern U.S. In 1921 she performed in Shuffle Along on Broadway and as a result found opportunities abroad, first in London, then Paris, Ostend, and other European cities.
By 1923, Florence had become an internationally acclaimed performer, recognized by such figures as noted dance critic Arnold Haskell, English theater impresario Charles B. Cochran, and even the Prince of Wales. She was one of the first Black American women to be featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Though many Black performers chose to stay in Europe at this time, Mills never expatriated, always returning to live in the U.S. She championed the NAACP and was eventually recognized for her activism through her work in the entertainment industry. Her signature song, "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird" from the musical Blackbirds her most recognized performance became a plea for racial equality at the time.
Mills' influence on the world's perception of the Black American woman, and of Black Americans in general, cannot be overstated. Upon her death in 1926 from tuberculosis at just 31, over 10,000 mourners attended her funeral.
Tatjana Barbakoff
Color aqua1nt with etching, 1926. Pencil signed. Edi1oned 68/150. Printed by Pollak on ivory laid paper. 165/16 x 14-5/16" platemark. Inventory no. 22574
Tatjana Barbakoff was born Cilly Edelberg in what is now Latvia in 1899, to a Russian-Jewish father and Chinese mother. She began taking ballet lessons as a very young child, influenced by stories of her mother's former life in China. Young Cilly would create her own Chinese-style dances, which she performed throughout her childhood.
At age nineteen, she moved to Berlin with her lover Georg Waldmannm where they married and began careers as performers under the names Tatjana Barbakoff and Marcel Boissier. Barbakoff's unusual approach to dance and costuming were a focal point for her admirers, and she became the muse of many ar%sts of the burgeoning Expressionist arts scenes in Berlin and Cologne; portraits of her can be found in museums throughout Europe.
With the rise of Nazi power in Germany, Barbakoff fled to Paris in 1933. There she con%nued to work as a performer, including at the dance academy of Isadora Duncan's brother, Raymond. Her freedom was limited, however, and in 1940, she was interred at the Gurs deten%on camp. During the armis%ce between France and Germany in 1942, she was released, aier which she lived on the run, hiding in various obliging family homes in the country before, eventually, being caught, and sent to Auschwitz. She died there in the gas chambers on February 6, 1944.
Harald Kreutzberg
Color aqua1nt with drypoint, ca. 1927. Pencil signed. Edi1on size not stated (only around 20 impressions, as noted by ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on delicate cream laid paper. 15-11/16 x 10-7/8" platemark.
Inventory no. 23010.
Oien considered the most popular performer in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, Harald Kreutzberg (German: 1902 - 1968) was a pioneering Modern dancer, known for his solo performances that combined dance with mime. He studied at the Dresden Ballet School while also pursuing Modern dance under Mary Wigman and Rudolf Laban. By 1928 he was touring throughout the U.S. and Canada with dance partner Yvonne Georgi; then, Europe and the Far East with American ballerina Ruth Page. He re%red in 1959, and opened his own dancing school in Bern, Switzerland. In a rare late-life performance he appeared as both Drosselmeyer and the Snow King in the televised 1965 German-American produc%on of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." It was considered the most successful broadcast version of the beloved work un%l it was superseded by Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1977.
This image captures Kreutzberg as his star was beginning to rise, in a costume that has become iconic of his early years. The flowing cape and pants, tassel earrings, and accentuated facial features were famously captured by Madame d'Ora in 1927 in a black and white photograph of him and Georgi, and again in the oil pain%ng "The Esthete" by William Valen%ne Schevill.
Vienna Valse (La Valse)
Drypoint, printed in deep red ink, ca. 1929. Pencil signed. Par1ally erased edi1oning reads "12/" (projected edi1on of around 100; only 15 printed, as later noted by the ar1st in lower margin).
Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper.15-5/8 x 13-9/16" platemark. Inventory no. 24058.
The iden%ty of this dancer remains unknown. However, it may very well be a member of the famed Les Ballets de Madame Ida Rubinstein, who performed Bronislava Nijinski's choreographed ballet of Maurice Ravel's "La Valse" (a.k.a. Wien Valse; Vienna Waltz) in 1929. The flowing costume and hairstyle of the dancer are the hallmarks of the Modernist aesthe%c in the late 1920s and early '30s.
Ellis Stampe Bendix (Lilian Ellis)
Drypoint with color aqua1nt, ca. 1930. Pencil signed. Proof from an unstated edi1on (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on cream wove paper. 16-3/16 x 15-13/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23013.
Ellis Stampe Bendix Forchhammer, known professionally as Lilian Ellis, was born in Denmark in 1907. She began training in ballet as a child and pursued ac%ng as a teen, joining the Deutsche Theater in Berlin. By age twenty-one she was starring in German silent films, and in 1934 was offered a film contract by Hal Roach in Hollywood, though this would prove unsuccessful. She returned to Europe to con%nue her stage career in Berlin, Paris, and London. She died at age forty-three in 1950 from complica%ons stemming from a kidney disease.
Hindou Dancer
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1935. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 2/10. Printed by Pollak on an1quewhite wove paper. 14-3/8 x 10-15/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23881.
An as-yet uniden%fied dancer, this may be Indonesian choreographer Devi Dja, a highly popular dancer throughout Southeast Asia who in the mid 1930s traveled to Europe for the first %me.
Devi Dja
Drypoint and color aqua1nt, ca. 1937. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 1/100 (only around 35 impressions printed, as later noted by the ar1st in lower margin). Printed by Pollak on cream laid paper. 21-1/8 x 16-1/2" platemark. Inventory no. 23890.
Misria 'Devi' Dja was born on the island of Java in 1914, into a family of musicians and performers and, aier her grandfather defected from the Royal Army of Yogyakarta, they lived on the run, traveling from town to town and busking to support themselves under the troupe name Stambul Pak Adi. Dja trained in legong and other tradi%onal dances in Bali. Legong is meant to be performed by prepubescent children; however, Dja con%nued to dance in a non-ceremonial capacity aier she'd reached puberty, inspired by the ballerina Anna Pavlova. In 1927, at age thirteen, she was invited to join the Malay Opera Dardanella troupe by its founder, Willy A. Piedro. Aier touring for a year, she recorded some of her songs with the German recording company Beka. She was then discovered by the symphony conductor Leopold Stokowski who had been traveling in Bali. At his encouragement, then 16-year-old Dja assembled a troupe of musicians and dancers to tour throughout Southeast Asian and, eventually, the world. She would first perform in Europe in 1937.
Dja eventually secled in Hollywood, California, and appeared in various films as a dancer, including "The Picture of Dorian Gray." By the end of her career she had established herself as one of the first people to introduce Balinese dance and theater to much of the world. She died in Northridge, California, on January 20, 1989.
Filipino Dancer
Drypoint and aqua1nt, printed in colors, ca. 1937-'55. Pencil signed. Edi1oned as 1/100 (likely fewer than 30 impressions). Printed by Pollak on an1que-white wove paper. 14-11/16 x 7-11/16" platemark. Inventory no. 23665.
Though unverified, this appears to be another image Misria 'Devi' Dja. Pollak captures the elegant movement of a woman dancing the Pangalay, an indigenous folk dance that predates the arrival of Abrahamic religions in the Philippines.
At the %me of this work's crea%on, the European art world was experiencing a fast-growing cultural shii in which Asian and African folk arts and dance were major components. The newness of non-European movement was especially significant as the styles of Modern dancers like Isadora Duncan and Elen Tels began gaining popularity.
As with all such cultural shiis, there was a fine line between exchange and exploita%on, and while many European dancers went to foreign countries to study the tradi%onal dances of "exo%c" cultures, it was rare for a dancer from a foreign country to come to a European metropolis to teach or perform. However, it was not unheard of. Dja would perform in Europe aier 1937.
In "Filipino Dancer," the performer wears tradi%onal clothing and the posi%ons of her hands, feet, and the expression she wears are carefully captured to best present an accurate depic%on of Pangalay.
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