Category Archives: Illustrators

Remarks and info about artists

Nine Cute Drawings Saved From Oblivion: Walter Plantikow

Wenn der Hahn nicht krähen kann..! (Im Hühnerstall – Down on the Farm)‘ by Billy Dale, Charles Parrott, Jimmy Adams, & Harry Harrison (German lyrics by Leopold Seewaldt), published by Roehr, C. M. (Berlin, s.d.) & illustrated by Walter Plantikow.

Untill now this sheet music cover was the only item in our collection illustrated by Walter Plantikow. Little is known about this German artist. We found and translated this bit of information from Stefan Nagel’s Titelblaettr blog:

During the Weimar Republic, Walter Plantikow, who was born in 1893, worked primarily for the Berlin-based Heinrich Borngräber Verlag, which published the “men’s magazine” “Reigen” as well as erotic novels and works of world literature. In addition, Plantikow designed postcards and music titles.
In later years he illustrated, among other things, the covers of dime books, children’s and youth books, he tried to establish himself as an artist by painting oil paintings and worked as an art teacher after the war. Walter Plantikow died in 1973.

Drawing by Walter Plantikow (source: ebay.it)

Recently we purchased an album, the cover of which was rather dully illustrated by Plantikow.

Im Spielwarenladen‘ by Max Paul Heller (published by Richard Birnbach (Berlin, 1923), front and title page illustrated by W. Plantikow.

But to our surprise, each of the nine little piano works showed a black and white drawing by the artist. Not really masterworks, but certainly worthy to be saved from oblivion… They can also cheer up your day!

Roger De Valerio: nom d’un chien!

Jicky – Fox-Trot Shimmy‘ by Lee Rudd. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1921) & illustrated by Roger de Valerio.
Cover of sheet music 'Ensueno' tango by Nozuod. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1926) and illustrated by Roger de Valerio.
Ensueno‘ tango by Nozuod. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1926) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Sheet musi cover for 'La peinadora' paso doble by Luis Barta, published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1916), illustrated by Roger de Valerio.
La peinadora‘ paso doble by Luis Barta, published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1916), illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Sheet music cover of 'Attends moi sous l'horloge' by Henri Christiné, Albert Willemetz, and Jacques-Charles. Publication of Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1923), cover illustration by Roger de Valerio.
Attends-moi sous l’horloge‘ by Henri Christiné, Albert Willemetz and Jacques-Charles. Publication of Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1923), cover illustration by Roger De Valerio.
Partitions musicales pour 'Si j'étais petit' by André Mauprey, René Nazelles, & Louis Lemarchand. Editions Francis Salbert (Paris, 1922). Cover illustrated by Roger de Valerio.
Si j’étais petit‘ by André Mauprey, René Nazelles, & Louis Lemarchand. Editions Francis Salbert (Paris, 1922). Cover illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Partition illustrée 'Patches' fox-trot by Lee S. Roberts, published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1919) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Patches‘ fox-trot by Lee S. Roberts and Will Callahan, published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1919) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Partition illustrée 'J'en ai marre!' by Maurice Yvain, Albert Willemetz, & Georges Arnould. Published by Francis Salabert (Paris, 1921) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
J’en ai marre!‘ by Maurice Yvain, Albert Willemetz & Georges Arnould. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1921) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Just a memory ( Rien qu’un souvenir)‘ by Ray Henderson, B. G. De Sylva & Lew Brown. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1927) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Sheet music cover 'Princesita' composed by José Padilla and published by Editions Francis Salbert (Paris, 1926). Cover illustration by Roger De Valerio.
Princesita‘ composed by José Padilla and published by Editions Francis Salbert (Paris, 1926). Cover illustration by Roger De Valerio.
Sheet music 'J'ai voulu revoir' by Jean Boyer, Louis Lemarchand, and Léo Lelièvre. Editions Francis Salbert (Paris, 1927). Cover illustration: Roger De Valerio.
J’ai voulu revoir‘ by Jean Boyer, Louis Lemarchand and Léo Lelièvre. Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1927). Cover illustration: Roger De Valerio.
Illustrated sheet music 'Swanee River Blues' by Dave Stamper. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1923) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Swanee River Blues‘ by Dave Stamper. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1923) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.

Eh.., yes, there is a little dog. Look carefully.

Partition musicale illustrée 'Le Fox du canard' from the operette Vivette, by Joseph Szulc and Gaston Dumestre. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1924) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.
Le Fox du canard‘ from the operette Vivette by Joseph Szulc and Gaston Dumestre. Published by Editions Francis Salabert (Paris, 1924) and illustrated by Roger De Valerio.

Hugo d’Alesi: Spiritist and Language Creator

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‘Au Revoir’ by R. Noghi, published by Cranz (Bruxelles, 1884) and illustrated by Hugo d’Alesi.

We focused previously on Hugo d’Alési as a painter, illustrator and inventor of the Maréorama. Besides, as a young man Hugo d’Alési was drawn to spiritualism or the belief that the dead can communicate with the living. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was not so exceptional for people to attend seances where a medium claimed to contact the dead. Victor Hugo, to name but one, was also known to dabble in this macabre divertissement.

The origins of modern spiritualism have been traced to the Fox family in Hydesville, New York. In 1848 the two youngest Fox daughters reported hearing a series of raps on their furniture and bedroom walls. They claimed that these rappings were communications from spirits. Although many years later they confessed to the hoax, their public demonstrations of rappings and the seances of hundreds of imitators gave rise to a widespread interest in spiritualism.

‘Spirit rappings’ by Rossington & Garrett, published by Oliver Ditson (Boston, 1853). Courtesy The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University.

Marie, the first wife of Hugo d’Alési, passed away when he was only 32. In her lifetime she had posed as a medium who automatically wrote down poems dictated to her by spirits. And Hugo d’Alési himself was able, without looking at his paper, to make drawings of spirits, who he insisted were present during seances. The couple had been guided into spiritism (the French branch of spiritualism) by Rufina Noeggerath who was born in Brussels in 1821 but later lived in Paris. There she held a salon for artistic and philosophic followers of spiritism.

La Survie. Sa réalité. Sa manifestation. Sa philosophie. Echos de l’Au-delà.‘ by Rufina Noeggerath (Paris, 1929). Cover illustrated by Hugo d’Alési. (source: abebooks.com)

The song Au Revoir illustrated by d’Alési is dedicated to Karl, Jacques and Marie Noeggerath. The woman in the medallion is Rufina Noeggerath and she seems to be in mourning. The gothic image depicts three children in a flowered sailboat. It looks to me that Hugo d’Alési perfectly demonstrated the transition of three persons close to Rufina from this world to the next, with guardian angel, flower wreaths, black sail e tutti quanti. We have two more songs created by R. Noghi in our sheet music collection. All three covers share a gothic illustration of grieving about children lost. Though we still have to find proof, we can safely assume that R. Noghi is the pseudonym for Rufina Noeggerath.

Deux Mélodies‘ by R. Noghi published by Schott Frères (Bruxelles, s.d.) and illustrated by Hugo d’Alési.

Rufina Noeggerath not only held literary and spiritistic salons in Paris, she was a medium herself. Once she sat at a small round table together with Jacques Offenbach‘s nephew when all of a sudden Offenbach’s spirit started to talk to them. Well, kind of talking, the table leg tapped out the messages: one tap meant a, 26 taps meant z. After some chitchat Offenbach started to compose a melody called Air from beyond the grave.

Offenbach’s post-mortem composition, as published in L’Humanité Intégrale, Dir. J.-Camille Chaigneau, 1 january 1897.

Rufina then asked Offenbach what words should accompany the melody. “Choose the most suitable one in your bundle of mediumistic poems written by Marie d’Alési.” the table answered. Rufina did what was asked and the table approved. Rufina claimed that she was not allowed to disclose the identity of Offenbach’s nephew, so conveniently, the story could not be confirmed and maybe she wrote this little melody herself.

‘Le Dernier Sommeil’ by R. Noghi published by Schott Frères (Bruxelles, s.d.) and possibly illustrated by Hugo d’Alesi.

This 1906 British short film features a medium exposed as a fake during a seance. The mechanisms of the special effects are revealed when the light is switched on (at around 3:25).

Hugo d’Alési was not only an engineer, a gifted illustrator and a spiritist, in 1901 he also wrote a method for international correspondence by numerical language. His universal language used nothing but the ten numerical digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and the letter x for indicating the plural. The language should enable everybody to exchange letters with the whole world without knowing any foreign language. All you needed was a french-numerical, english-numerical or japanese-numerical dictionary. The conjugation of verbs was also indicated by digits. Needless to say that his method never became successful nor popular, and I don’t think any numerical dictionary was ever printed. Surely his promotion of a numerical Esperanto made less waves than his Maréorama in the real world. But perhaps it became more accepted in the afterlife…

Méthode de correspondence internationale: la langue numérique par Hugo d’Alési. source: gallica.bnf.fr