Recently acquired: caricatures from Germany and Italy

Ivo Blom recently acquired two series of caricatures of film stars. One series dates from the early 1930s and was published by an unknown German publisher and the caricatures were drawn by the German illustrator Eberhard Renziehausen, who signed as 'Rienzi'. The other series was made in Italy in the 1910s. The four caricatures were designed by Sandro Properzi for the Roman magazine Le Maschere.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi .

English comedian Charles ‘Charlie’ Chaplin (1889-1977) was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. His most famous role was that of The Tramp with his toothbrush mustache, undersized bowler hat, and bamboo cane who struggled to survive while keeping his dignity in a world with great social injustice.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi. In Germany, Laurel & Hardy are known as Dick und Doof.

Thin Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and heavyset American Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) were a comedy double act during the early classical Hollywood era. They became well known during the late 1920s through the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi.

The Danish double-act Fy og Bi (Fyrtårnet og Bivognen) was the most famous comedy couple of the European silent cinema. Long Carl Schenstrom (1881-1942) and short Harald Madsen (1890-1949) became very popular in the 1920s with their short slapstick films. In Germany and Austria, Fy og Bi are known as Pat & Patachon, in the Netherlands as Watt & Halfwatt, in France as Doublepatte et Patachon, in Great Britain as Long & Short, in Sweden as Telegrafstopen och Tilhengern, and in the US as Ole & Aksel. Before Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis and Laurel & Hardy, Fy & Bi were the world's first internationally famous comedy team.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi.

German-Austrian comedian, director, and author Theo Lingen (1903-1978) enjoyed for decades huge popularity as a devoted servant or bureaucratic dignitary in films. The German and Austrian comedy isn’t imaginable without this brilliant character actor.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi.

German character actor Rudolf Platte (1904-1984) played both cheerfully talkative and reserved and shy, but loving people in more than 200 films. After his death, the media hailed him as Berlin’s ‘last true folk actor’.


German collectors card. Caricature by Rienzi.

Paul Kemp (1899-1953) was one of the most popular comedians of the German cinema in the 1930s. For a short time, he was even in greater favour of the audience than Heinz Rühmann.


German collectors card. Design: Rienzi.

Aribert Wäscher (1895–1961) was a German actor, who acted from the silent era up to the mid-1950s. He had important parts in Viktor und Viktoria (1933), Petersburger Nächte (1935), Amphitryon (1935), Madame Bovary (1937), Brillanten (1937), Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht (1939), Rembrandt (1942), Berliner Ballade (1948), and The Man Between (1953), often playing antipathic antagonists.


German postcard, 1930s. Caricature by Rienzi (Eberhard Renziehausen).

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) was the first German actress who became successful in Hollywood. Throughout her long career, she constantly re-invented herself. In 1920s Berlin, she started as a cabaret singer, chorus girl, and film actress. In the 1930s, she became a Hollywood star, then a World War II frontline entertainer, and finally, she was an international stage show performer from the 1950s till the 1970s. Now we remember her as one of the icons of the 20th century.

Italian caricatures by Sandro Properzi

Sandro Properzi was a prolific Italian caricaturist and postcard, sheet music, and poster designer, e.g. for furniture-maker Poltrona Frau. He was also the art director of the films L'Inferno/Dante's Inferno (Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro, 1911) - faithfully recreating the settings from Gustave Doré's art, La Sacra Bibbia/After Six Days (Pier Antonio Gariazzo, Armando Vey, 1920) and I quattro moschettieri/The Four Musketeers (Carlo Campogalliani, 1936). Properzi was also an artist who exhibited his paintings and watercolors at the yearly exhibition of Palazzo della Permanente, the Modern Art Museum in Milano, in 1915, 1923, and 1925.


Italian postcard. Caricature by Sandro Properzi for Le Maschere, Rome.

Polish - some say Ukrainian - actress Diana Karenne (1888-1940) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema.


Italian postcard. Caricature by Sandro Properzi for Le Maschere, Rome.

Fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. With her contorted postures and disdainful expression, she impersonated the striking femme fatale.


Italian postcard. Caricature by Sandro Properzi for Le Maschere, Rome.

Polish actress Soava Gallone (1880-1957) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema.


Italian postcard. Caricature by Sandro Properzi for Le Maschere, Rome.

Alfonso Cassini (1858-1921) was an Italian actor in theatre and silent cinema.

More? Check out this earlier post on film star caricatures. And next Saturday, EFSP will present a post with caricatures of female stars from the collection of Marlene Pilaete.