Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf move to Gordon Square
in Bloomsbury, after the death of their father Sir Leslie Stephen in 1904. They start hanging out with their brothers' friends from Cambridge and the Bloomsbury Group is born.
There was a time there were more books about them all than you could shake a stick at: Quentin Bell's biography of Virginia, the Holroyd biography of Lytton Strachey, Nigel Nicholson's portrait of his parent's marriage, (Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West,) the photo album of Frances Partridge, the coffee table art books ... then the movies came along, Emma Thompson played Carrington in love with Jonathan Pryce and finally Nicole Kidman played Viriginia, by which point I suppose we exhausted the subject.
Or perhaps it's just a generational thing and the world has moved on. Well, for you young people, I recommend a peak at a lovely website www.charleston.org.uk -- Charleston is the house Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell moved to in 1916, and there are links there to other Bloomsbury sites. A very decorative era which I personally admire, but not to everyone's taste.
In fact, at a very nice dinner last night in honor of F. [in Mar Vista, out toward the beach. I took Venice the whole way; I always like taking surface streets instead of the freeway], I saw P and J who were asking about this blog.
"All the things you say about 1904 make it sound like a very gay time," they observed.
"Oh dear," I replied, touched by their concern.
"Don't you think there are young straight boys out in the Midwest who will have no idea what you're talking about?"
Needless to say I could see they had a point. Therefore, I implore you all, (especially those of you with extensive field experience dealing with this element of our society), to respond with 1904-related events and associations which would be of interest to young heterosexual males in the Midwest. I don't know, perhaps something in the field of agriculture. Or a salient reference to the automobile industry? They live in rural areas and like cars, don't they. And they like girls, and large machinery and beer and ... guns, I suppose. Not necessarily in that order, of course.
Any suggestions you have will be deeply appreciated.
I wondered when this would come up. (Bloomsbury, not your probably non-existent straight male audience in the heartland.) Ulysses (I know you remember him) & I were just having a discussion about the Omega Workshop ~ was it inspired by the Wiener Werkstatte, an independent inspiration of Roger Fry's, or simply part of the general zeitgeist of early 20th century Modernism. The Bloomsburries were always running off to the Festspielhaus to see the Ring ~ I just can't ever wrap my head around the fact that Wagner was at one time, cutting edge. We know that Fry organized the first major show of the Post-impressionists in London (if we don't , we should) so he was very connected to the Continent & must have known the Werkstatte. (Apologies for the missing umlauts ~ I don't know how to make them in your comments.) Anyway, it turned out that Ulysses didn't really know that much about the Omega. I got to appear very smart & savvy by filling him in (Duncan & Vanessa, the usual suspects) but the real focus of the conversation (and eventually THIS post) was the Werkstatte. the WW has become very visible on the cultural radar these days, partly because of The Neue Gallery's purchase of Klimt's "Adele", but more (I believe) the current interest in 20th c. Modernism. By the way, the WW was started in 1903 so once again I am a year early.
It was Josef Hoffmann's baby, sort of a Teutonic Arts & Crafts movement (CR Macintosh was a buddy of Hoffmann, if you look it's obvious) but the truly important thing was ~ My God, at last ~ that it was the foundation of the Ark of the Modernist Covenant, The Bauhaus. A union of "fine" & "decorative" arts. It was also the beginnings of branding, but I'm not going to go there.
In fact, I'm going to stop here & see if anyone nibbles at this one.
M
I just ate in the neue gallerie restaurant - the one upstairs with the scary (sadly post 1904.....still searching.....) austro-hungarian dishes, a revolving cake stand from vienna and cabaret posters with spiky black script. a christopher moment indeed......
1904: cecil beaton born
found one! bloomsbury-adjacent in a way:
14 January, 1904: Cecil Beaton was born at 21 Langland Gardens, Hampstead (where all the writers live - hence at least one bloomsbury connection). According to his diaries which I have in front of me he believes he was conceived in Monaco as his parents spent their honeymoon at Hotel Hermitage.
sadly not another choice entry for those chaps in the midwest (well, apart from the ones who run away to NYC.......)
Success! Sophia at last. George insists this was your idea. Kudos, I still can't believe it took him so long.While NOT my intention, I have actually managed to come up with a pertinent 1904 item concerning the Wiener.I swear I wasn't trying. (You will just have to see the umlauts in your minds eye.)
"The fashion salon 'Schwestern Floge" at the Casa Piccola, 1b Mariahilfer Strasse, Vienna VI, opened in 1904, probably thanks to the support of Gustave Klimt, who was a lifelong friend of Emilie Floge. this was one of the WW's first commissions, and the interior was designed by Josef Hoffmann and Kolo Moser as a radically practical, severely geometric framework,exclusively in black, white and gray, for the eccentricities of luxury and changing fashions."
My God. It is so obvious that that excerpt was translated from German.
Sophia, bet you a slice of Doboscher Torte the posters were from the Cabaret Fledermaus.
M
aha! i believe the posters were indeed - but spelt teutonically with the K for Kabaret i believe.