Pencil drawings for Vanity Fair. Unfortunately these were done on thin paper, and the combination of this with the heavy areas of black has led to creasing.
Pencil drawing for Vanity Fair April 1927 page 57. One of 5 drawings for Opera Addicts from Grand Tier to Gallery. The caption is THE HARD OF HEART
Pencil drawing for Vanity Fair February 1929, page 66. One of 4 drawings for An Up-to-Date Guide to the Opera. The caption is THE DEATH GRAPPLE. Herr Gottwillig and Fraulein Dannenpfeffer are just bringing to its anguished close the tragic tale of Tristan und Isolde. Tristan has been pierced in the paunch by one of King Mark’s henchmen, way back in the second act, and his hefty sweetheart implanted firmly and probably permanently on his chest, sings on and on and on…
Pencil drawing for Vanity Fair February 1929, page 66. One of 4 drawings for An Up-to-Date Guide to the Opera. The caption is DER SUPERMANN. Albert Gratzmuller roles are commonly those of large overstuffed Gods and Giants who haunt the mysterious doings of The Ring. He is shown above as Wotan chanting the values of Das Rheingold. When he thumps his spear on the ground the mountains tremble. Once when he slipped and fell, a large tree toppled right over!
Pencil drawing, probably an un-used one for Our Visiting Conductors which appeared in Vanity Fair in January 1927
Fine gouache fan design on silk c.1920. He did a number of fan designs but I doubt if any were ever put into production.
The scans I have of the Vanity Fair pages are OK for the images but the text is difficult to read. Here is a transcript of the text.
APRIL 1923
ASK ME NO MORE
The justly infamous Baths of Caracella could never, even in their palmiest and oiliest days, have suggested an atmosphere of more sinister mystery than surrounds the morning ablutions of our Dowager, here mercifully veiled from our gaze by a rococo screen elegantly enriched with the lascivious bergeries of Olympus
THE LOVE AMONG THE RUINS
And indeed the Dowager herself is not unlike a Roman Emperor a la fin du decadence whose constitution has miraculously withstood years of incredible abuses; her own belief that she is the re-incarnation of Ninon de l’Enclos aids the mirror in a duplicity doubtless first learned at the court wherein it first reflected beauty.
THE GOLDEN POMP
Men milliners, millionaire monstrosities and military in mufti meet to create an impression of pomp and circumstance around the Dowager’s triumphal Rolls Royce during the afternoon shopping hour: only Ivan, the Russian wolf-hound, and Giovanni, the noble Italian chauffeur, manage to preserve attitudes of aristocratic contempt
MY LADY SLEEPS
At last the damask coverlid conceals the ambiguous beating of the Dowager’s ancient heart; her relaxed and unguarded visage seems less human than the simian mask of the little black dog by her side. As for her dreams, let none but hardened and courageous scientists inquire into their complexities