Why is this photo so significant? (some cool history)
PutTogether
Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭
Take a second to look at the photo below. Think about it for a minute or two in the context of the forum we're on. Far below I'll post what I think.
The photo is a frame from a silent film ' Inspiration' that debuted in the United States in 1915. It was the first film to depict a nude woman. Chosen for the role, was one Miss Audrey Munson, a woman of great fame at the time. Ms. Munson was a professional model, highly sought after by artists and sculptors to pose a basis for some great and famous works. She is the star of many statues all around the US, particularly in New York.
She was so famous as a model in fact, that the plot of the movie in which she got a starting role was about a young woman who is discovered by a young sculptor.
Munson was the subject of a few sculptures done by a famous man of the time - Adolph Weinman. Munson was used perhaps most famously as a figure for sculptures of the fountains at the Panama Pacific Exposition, and in reductions of those statues he would resell for some time after , Descending NightLook again at the first image, and then remember who designed the Walking Liberty Half.......that's right, Adolph Weinman! Some people take it as a given that Munson was the model for the Walking Liberty Half, but I can't find it mentioned for sure anywhere. Looking at the photo above, and from THIS quote from his son:
<< <i>It is generally believed that in fashioning the dime design, Weinman based his Winged Liberty portrait on a bust he had done in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of well-known poet Wallace Stevens. She and her husband were tenants at the time in a New York City apartment house owned by the sculptor.
In an interview with this author, Robert Weinman said he had no firsthand knowledge of the matter; he was born in 1915, right around the time his father was preparing the designs. He did, however, give the story credence.
"I think there is some truth to that," he said. "Mrs. Stevens was supposed to have been an unusually good-looking woman, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this had happened. Whether this got her a percentage back on the rent, I don't know.
"The Walking Liberty of the 50-cent piece was, I believe, based on a professional model," Weinman added. "However, she's unknown by name to me." >>
it seems that we can be sure she was indeed the model. If we can deduce that Munson was indeed the model for the WLH, the above image is certainly foreshadowing, if not the actual influence of the coin.
Since 'Inspiration' didn't debut until November of 1915, it is doubtful that the above frame from the movie served to directly influence the Half Dollar. In fact, many think, and Weinman's son acknowledges, that the WLH was more directly influenced by 'Sower' by Louis Oscar Roty.
SOWER
Viewing 'The Sower' one can immediately see the similarities. Since 'Sower' was completed almost two decades before the WLH, it makes sense that Weinman had seen it, and that it did influence the coin that would later bear his initials.
The shot above from 'Inspiration' still makes for an intriguing thought. We know Munson was an in-demand model for MANY famous sculptors, including Weinman, AND Weinman's son says that the model for the WLH was a 'professional.' We can be almost certain she was the model for the coin. Knowing that Munson was the model, it isn't a far leap to imagine the image above floating in the mind of Weinman as he went about designing the coin that many of us collect today.
NOTE: The story of Audrey Munson is an amazing tale in itself. She went from nothing, to worldwide fame, and had a landlord become so infatuated with her he that murdered his wife to make himself available to her. She later attempted suicide and spent the rest of her days in a home for the mentally ill. She died in 1996 - a full eight decades after first gracing the obverse of one of the most beautiful U.S. coins every minted.
The photo is a frame from a silent film ' Inspiration' that debuted in the United States in 1915. It was the first film to depict a nude woman. Chosen for the role, was one Miss Audrey Munson, a woman of great fame at the time. Ms. Munson was a professional model, highly sought after by artists and sculptors to pose a basis for some great and famous works. She is the star of many statues all around the US, particularly in New York.
She was so famous as a model in fact, that the plot of the movie in which she got a starting role was about a young woman who is discovered by a young sculptor.
Munson was the subject of a few sculptures done by a famous man of the time - Adolph Weinman. Munson was used perhaps most famously as a figure for sculptures of the fountains at the Panama Pacific Exposition, and in reductions of those statues he would resell for some time after , Descending NightLook again at the first image, and then remember who designed the Walking Liberty Half.......that's right, Adolph Weinman! Some people take it as a given that Munson was the model for the Walking Liberty Half, but I can't find it mentioned for sure anywhere. Looking at the photo above, and from THIS quote from his son:
<< <i>It is generally believed that in fashioning the dime design, Weinman based his Winged Liberty portrait on a bust he had done in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of well-known poet Wallace Stevens. She and her husband were tenants at the time in a New York City apartment house owned by the sculptor.
In an interview with this author, Robert Weinman said he had no firsthand knowledge of the matter; he was born in 1915, right around the time his father was preparing the designs. He did, however, give the story credence.
"I think there is some truth to that," he said. "Mrs. Stevens was supposed to have been an unusually good-looking woman, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this had happened. Whether this got her a percentage back on the rent, I don't know.
"The Walking Liberty of the 50-cent piece was, I believe, based on a professional model," Weinman added. "However, she's unknown by name to me." >>
it seems that we can be sure she was indeed the model. If we can deduce that Munson was indeed the model for the WLH, the above image is certainly foreshadowing, if not the actual influence of the coin.
Since 'Inspiration' didn't debut until November of 1915, it is doubtful that the above frame from the movie served to directly influence the Half Dollar. In fact, many think, and Weinman's son acknowledges, that the WLH was more directly influenced by 'Sower' by Louis Oscar Roty.
SOWER
Viewing 'The Sower' one can immediately see the similarities. Since 'Sower' was completed almost two decades before the WLH, it makes sense that Weinman had seen it, and that it did influence the coin that would later bear his initials.
The shot above from 'Inspiration' still makes for an intriguing thought. We know Munson was an in-demand model for MANY famous sculptors, including Weinman, AND Weinman's son says that the model for the WLH was a 'professional.' We can be almost certain she was the model for the coin. Knowing that Munson was the model, it isn't a far leap to imagine the image above floating in the mind of Weinman as he went about designing the coin that many of us collect today.
NOTE: The story of Audrey Munson is an amazing tale in itself. She went from nothing, to worldwide fame, and had a landlord become so infatuated with her he that murdered his wife to make himself available to her. She later attempted suicide and spent the rest of her days in a home for the mentally ill. She died in 1996 - a full eight decades after first gracing the obverse of one of the most beautiful U.S. coins every minted.
0
Comments
The Star Maiden
A very interesting post.
<< <i>I'd visit this forum more often if we had more photos like this one!
And that's saying quite a lot!
<< <i>I'd visit this forum more often if we had more photos like this one!
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
<< <i>
<< <i>I'd visit this forum more often if we had more photos like this one!
And that's saying quite a lot!
LOL! Good one!
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>Good post!
For more cross-medium sculpture/coin related stuff, have you guys seen this portrait of Weinman done by ANOTHER famous sculptor/coin designer?
Adolph Alexander Weinman, by Anthony de Francisci.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Thanks for sharing.
Cool bit of history. I like learning things here, especially when it’s not something as controversial as distinguishing an MS68 from an MS69.