Velox Snapshot. Private Collection.
A candid of a curly haired boy violinist in pajamas sitting in contre-jour by a tall and narrow window.
There’s some light reflection to the bottom, some fog and a ghost-like anomaly…maybe cigarette smoke…maybe not.
Digital restoration work titled The Boy Violinist In Pajamas by Caroline C. Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
My uncle Patrick. Family photo.
What a cutie, huh? He was born in 54, so this was most likely taken in 1960 of whereabouts. On the cusp of my blog timeline, but I’ll make exceptions for family. Such a pretty photo! We all have that cheeky smile in the family. He doesn’t know I posted this picture of him on here…shhh…..lol.
Rupert (right) with brother Alfred and pet Rugby (after the city he was born at). 1900.
Rupert, his mother and brother Alfred in costumes.1898.
This was a long time coming. I have a great appreciation for the poet Rupert Brooke, and these pictures of him as a boy are not often seen. They were scanned from a book I own, ‘The Letters of Rupert Brooke and Noel Olivier’, edited by Pippa Harris.
His life was short and full of ideals, and charmed for the most part. He was also sort of a selfish person who grew up with the proverbial ‘silver spoon’ in his mouth, with many men and women in his love life. But he was free-spirited too, going to America, then to Oahu (where I lived too- love his Waikiki poem) and off to Tahiti where he met the woman, Taatamata, who is thought to have given birth to his daughter.
He died in 1915 at 27, exactly a hundred years ago, of a mosquito bite that brought on scepsis while on duty on a ship. He is interred on Skyros, a Greek island, and his patriotic poem ‘The Soldier’ was used as propaganda during the first World War.
Was Rupert a man of many internal struggles? Most definitely, yet he had an immense talent with words.
In the pages of the book I have, I found an old newspaper article tucked in. Apparently, the grandmother of actress Helena Bonham Carter (who I must say I absolutely love) was very much in love with him. It was unrequited, but they kept a long exchange of letters until Rupert died.
Following is a CDV of Rupert, Alfred and their pet, and two CDV portraits of Rupert in his teens. (By the way, Rupert’s wearing the same collar as another English society boy Leonard Spiller. They both ended up at Cambridge only three years apart too. It would be interesting to find out if Leonard was Alfred’s classmate -they certainly attended during the same years and are the same age.)
And then as he is known: ‘the most handsome man of England’ in 1913, two years before his death:
Rupert Brooke
Sad too that Alfred was killed in action only three months after his brother’s death.
A favorite poem of his after the cut, ‘The Great Lover’.
Neil Hamilton. Picture scanned from the J.C. Leyendecker book by Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler
Ah, I could gush about J.C. Leyendecker’s works (and his brother’s) for eternity. While his main model was Charles Beach who was his lifelong partner, he also used other models like the actor Neil Hamilton. This is a picture of him gazing at Joe’s work above a fireplace.
While Norman Rockwell is the ultimate Americana painter in the American psyche, he wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is if it weren’t for Leyendecker.
The book is worth the expense. A beautiful collection of his work.
From what I know this picture was taken in Washington D.C. It’s widely available in print but I don’t know who the photographer was. A great, great picture however, of two boys running ahead of two cops on motorcycles and side cars. Most likely taken in the late 10s, it gives a furtive taste of how free kids were to roam the streets, something I’m happy to say I am old enough to have experienced myself, free of smart phones, free to run wild until you got home and mom gave you a scolding for staying out so late.
Bowlers And High Collars 