If you've spent any amount of time on this blog (or with this kind of postcard elsewhere), you no doubt will have noticed the models have a very strong "type," especially the men. I've always been humoured by this, even as I've paid more attention and started to see the same few men over and over. However, upon finally deciding to take a very serious look at this question, I discovered something pretty surprising and very interesting-- while there is certainly a "type", it's less strong than I thought... because a very large number of the models fitting that type are in fact the same man. I'm surprised how long it took me to realize this-- for the longest time, in fact, I thought he was two different models, until I looked more closely and realized no, that's him with different expressions.
It's surprisingly hard to pick out photographs of the same person when you've never seen that person in real life or in motion (like an actor)-- if you've always seen him in profile with his eyes lowered, it's hard to recognize his opened eyes and smile. These postcards make it harder-- the variety of colours are an obstacle, especially the dye-toned ones that aren't sharp; the hair and clothes change frequently (his hair can range from slicked back and kept straight with a ton of product to quite puffy and wavy without any product, or anywhere in between); and often the men are wearing make-up (not to mention plucked eyebrows!). Also, unlike most other kinds of portraits (including snapshots and photojournalism) no one is trying to capture what this specific person looks like, only what he represents. However, the more I looked at him (not a difficult task, I'll admit) the more I started to get a strong idea of what he actually looks like, and the easier it became to recognize him no matter the context. Anyway, as well as now being totally in love with him, I feel pretty sure I can now pick him out of the 1920s postcard model crowd (how many people can say that?).
I know almost nothing about him, and have almost no idea where I could possibly find out more (perhaps in some French archive, with a research grant and a ton of luck!, except that he made a career out of being a postcard model in the 1920s (which admittedly is pretty interesting). In fact, he appears in at least one-third of my postcards dated 1923-1933, and possibly more-- the dye toning, outdoor light, and/or poses make clear looks at the fellows impossible on a number of the cards. He obviously has quite delicate, feminine features, even without make-up, which was totally the "in" look for men in the 1920s (think of Rudolph Valentino, the fundamental period hearthrob).
The postcards in which he appears come from a variety of different publishers, which is worthwhile to know-- clearly the models weren't in any sort of exclusive contract with publishers. I would love to know if the photographers were, and/or the relationship between the photographers and the models.... but if I'm ever able to, that's down the line.
For now, let's celebrate the career of our mystery model, the Romantic Lover of 1920s fantasy!
All images cropped from postcards in my collection, most of which have appeared or will appear elsewhere in this blog.
His extreme specialty was posing in profile with lowered eyes:
Occasionally you could catch him in three-quarter profile:
Or even staight on:
He did also open his eyes sometimes as well:
Or catch him squinting into the sun:
(gosh those are both such bad pictures!)
He'd even smile on rare occasions:
(and his smile is pretty great)
He could even totally rock the clown look:
(Pierrot)
(Harlequin)
Personally I think he just knocks the socks of any male model today!
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