Ralph Barton

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From English Wikipedia @ Freddythechick
For the American philosopher, see Ralph Barton Perry. For the fictional character, see Running Wild (1955 film).
Ralph Barton
Ralph Barton in 1926
Born
Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton

(1891-08-14)August 14, 1891
Kansas City, Missouri
DiedMay 19, 1931(1931-05-19) (aged 39)
New York City, New York
Occupation(s)Artist, cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator
Spouses
Children2

Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton (August 14, 1891 – May 19, 1931) was a popular American cartoonist and caricaturist of actors and other celebrities. His work was in heavy demand through the 1920s and has been considered to epitomize the era. Barton was nearly forgotten soon after his death, shortly before his fortieth birthday.[1]

Early life

Ralph Barton was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 14, 1891, the youngest of Abraham Pool and Catherine Josephine (Wigginton) Barton's four children.[2][3] His father was an attorney by profession, but around the time of Ralph's birth made a career change to publish journals on metaphysics. His mother, an accomplished portrait painter, ran an art studio.[4] The young Barton showed his mother's aptitude for art, and by the time he was in his mid-teens he had already seen several of his cartoons and illustrations published in The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Journal-Post. Buoyed by this success, in 1908 Ralph Barton dropped out of Kansas City's Central High School before graduation. He moved to Chicago in 1909 to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, but soon found he didn't "like Chicago or Chicago people and worst of all the art institute. I could learn twice as much at work," he confided in a letter to his mother.[4] Returning to Kansas City within a matter of months, Barton married Marie Jennings, his first wife.

Career

<imagemap id=Victuallers> File:RalphBartonExtract.jpg|300px|thumb|left|This 1922 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton[5] shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.

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212 97 224 97 229 97 239 109 259 125 311 115 346 135 467 114 565 109 565 109 572 77 573 89 563 87 563 102 470 102 465 81 465 76 449 83 362 73 334 62 311 61 271 69 262 69 258 57 264 48 262 54 255 54 260 64 257 58 243 44 243 42 237 47 226 Rex Ingram poly 1 294 22 281 48 290 57 302 57 318 69 337 63 345 63 356 86 368 116 394 123 411 116 425 96 438 75 447 81 468 73 496 66 546 65 572 0 317 2 570 11 565 63 569 Peter the hermit poly 257 383 253 356 253 352 252 342 258 342 258 334 253 330 245 330 236 315 233 302 226 298 226 290 226 284 230 284 215 284 229 282 230 269 263 270 267 276 277 282 279 291 279 295 275 307 273 311 273 324 275 324 282 332 294 337 312 360 312 368 327 387 326 572 286 571 284 500 288 463 301 450 283 416 Charlie Chaplin poly 101 296 101 289 97 286 97 281 97 278 98 269 101 257 107 251 123 251 141 259 153 273 157 284 156 292 156 293 162 300 167 305 176 310 165 317 165 328 165 357 169 377 176 385 183 393 176 455 177 489 173 522 168 523 162 518 156 522 141 572 133 572 136 514 136 494 136 465 127 457 125 422 126 407 122 393 122 381 109 369 108 340 111 320 119 306 117 301 107 299 Alice Terry poly 322 363 315 363 313 358 310 353 301 355 298 360 296 366 292 367 289 367 289 361 290 352 299 349 300 344 310 344 317 337 321 334 318 332 318 327 312 327 309 327 309 321 307 314 303 314 305 306 308 303 308 300 302 299 302 291 308 282 324 273 332 273 341 273 348 275 354 281 361 284 361 289 361 299 340 325 331 343 324 357 Mary Pickford poly 175 4 197 24 193 46 193 62 195 96 178 109 213 109 213 105 209 82 209 42 215 14 215 2 226 2 226 23 226 42 229 88 228 110 258 110 242 98 242 57 242 30 254 20 261 14 265 2 William C. deMille poly 296 1 284 31 282 41 286 66 296 102 285 109 305 109 305 101 305 61 298 41 306 30 324 30 324 40 324 58 328 95 338 101 341 65 341 50 341 34 353 27 368 11 348 1 Cecil B. 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desc none </imagemap> While back in Kansas City, Barton resumed his work for the Star and Journal-Post to support his wife and daughter, born in 1910. His first major break came in 1912 when Barton sold an illustration to the humor magazine Puck. Encouraged, the Bartons moved to New York City, where Ralph found steady work with Puck, McCall's and other publications. His wife was not happy with life there, however, and returned to Kansas City within a few months. Barton rented studio space in New York, which he shared with another famous Missouri artist, Thomas Hart Benton, and the two became fast friends.[4] It was Benton, in fact, who served as the subject of Barton's first caricature.[1]

In 1915, Puck magazine sent Barton to France to sketch scenes of World War I. It was then that Barton developed a great love of all things French, and throughout his life he would return to Paris to live for periods of time. In 1927, the French government awarded Barton the Legion of Honour[4]

Following Barton's caricature of Benton, he drew many of the most significant figures in New York's social and cultural scene of the time—including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Lillian Gish, Sigmund Freud, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Charlie Chaplin.[1] Some of his most famous works were group drawings, and perhaps the most noted was a stage curtain created for a 1922 revue, depicting an "audience" of 139 faces looking back at the real theater-goers. "The effect was electrifying, and the applause was great," said another caricaturist of the era, Aline Fruhauf.[6]

An interior sketch by illustrator Ralph Barton depicting two flappers being greeted by a Frenchman at a cafe who is kissing their hand.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes llustration by Barton

Much of Barton's work from the mid-1920s onward was for The New Yorker magazine, which he joined as an advisory editor from its very beginning in 1924. He would also be a stockholder in the publication. Other prominent magazines of the era to feature his work were Collier's, Photoplay, Vanity Fair, Judge, and Harper's Bazaar. While many would be published unsigned, there was no mistaking Barton's unique style.[7] He illustrated books as well, including Anita Loos's hugely popular Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. With the urging of friend Charlie Chaplin, Barton also made one movie, Camille. The short film featured such notables as Paul Robeson, Ethel Barrymore, and Sinclair Lewis.[7]

One of Barton's popular caricatures was "A Tuesday Night at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles As Imagined by a Noted American Artist, Ralph Barton", which was published in the June 1927 issue of Vanity Fair.[8] It pictured dozens of celebrity actors including Clara Bow, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford and Louise Brooks. The illustration was later printed on fabric and turned into a dress.[9]

February 21, 1925 cover of Judge by Barton

At the height of his popularity, Barton enjoyed not only the acquaintance of the famous, but a solid and impressive income. All of this concealed a terribly unhappy life. He was beset by bipolar disorder, and each of his four marriages ended in divorce. (One of his wives was the French composer Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) who was a member of Les Six.) A self-portrait, painted around 1925 is inscribed "with apologies to Greco and God," and shows a drawn and unhappy figure. A year later he wrote, "The human soul would be a hideous object if it were possible to lay it bare."[10]

Death

On May 19, 1931, in his East Midtown Manhattan penthouse apartment, Barton shot himself through the right temple. He was 39 years old.[11] His suicide note said he had irrevocably "lost the only woman I ever loved" (the actress Carlotta Monterey had divorced Barton in 1926 and married Eugene O'Neill in 1929), and that he feared his worsening bipolar disorder was approaching insanity.[12] He wrote: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife and house to house, visited great countries of the world—but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day."[13] Almost immediately, his reputation diminished; several years after his death, a caricature of George Gershwin sold for a mere $5.[1] Ralph Barton's ashes were returned to his native Kansas City and interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery.[4]

Legacy

Toward the end of the century, his work was included in several exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery. A 1998 conference on cartooning at the Library of Congress also considered his work.

Bibliography

Books

  • G.P.P., ed. (1922). Nonsenseorship : sundry observations concerning prohibitions, inhibitions and illegalities. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. New York: G. P. Putnam's sons/The Knickerbocker Press.
  • Loos, Anita (1925). "Gentlemen prefer blondes" : the illuminating diary of a professional lady. Intimately illustrated by Ralph Barton. New York: Boni & Liveright.
  • — (1927). But gentlemen marry brunettes. Intimately illustrated by Ralph Barton. New York: Boni & Liveright.[14]
  • Shaw, Charles G. (1927). Heart in a hurricane. Illustrations by Ralph Barton. New York: Brentano's.
  • Merkin, Richard (1968). The jazz age, as seen through the eyes of Ralph Barton, Miguel Covarrubias, and John Held, Jr. Providence, R.I.: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Exhibition catalog.

Essays and reporting

  • R. B. (March 7, 1925). "Black magic in West Forty-Fifth Street : Mr. James Rennie and Mr. Francis Corbie in "Cape Smoke" at the Martin Beck Theatre". The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 3. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 10.
  • Barton, Ralph (March 7, 1925). "La Ville Lumière". The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 3. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 19.
  • R. B. (March 14, 1925). "Ibsen done right by at last : great work by The Actors' Theatre in Forty-Eighth Street". The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 4. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 12.
  • — (March 21, 1925). "Idyllic moments from the current theatre : Miss Doris Keane and Mr. Leon Errol stub their several toes". The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 5. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 15.
  • — (March 28, 1925). "Glorifying the American guffaw : a new edition of the Follies that really is new". The Theatre. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 6. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 15.
  • — (April 4, 1925). "The Actors' Theatre's third knock-out : bring your lunch and remain in your seats to see "The Wild Duck"". The Theatre. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 7. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. p. 15.

Critical studies and reviews of Barton's work

  • Bruce Kellner. The Last Dandy: Ralph Barton, American Artist, 1891-1931. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8262-0774-X
  • John Updike. Just Looking: Essays on Art, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1989. ISBN 0-394-57904-6

References

  1. ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Abstracts for Caricature and Cartoon in Twentieth-Century America". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  2. ^ Updike, John (1989-02-13). "A Case of Melancholia". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  3. ^ Updike, John (February 20, 1989). "A Case of Melancholia". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  4. ^ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Dictionary of Missouri Biography, Lawrence O. Christensen, University of Missouri Press, 1999
  5. ^ "When the Five O'Clock Whistle Blows in Hollywood". Vanity Fair. September 1922. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Ralph Barton theater curtain". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2008-01-29. from the exhibition Celebrity Caricature in America: Stage Folk
  7. ^ 7.0 7.1 "Ralph Barton biography". Princeton University Library website. 2010. Archived from the original on 9 August 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  8. ^ Barton, Ralph. "A Tuesday Night at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles As Imagined by a Noted American Artist, Ralph Barton". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  9. ^ "Louise Brooks - Caricatures and Illustrations (American)". Louise Brooks Society. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  10. ^ "Ralph Barton Self-Portrait". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  11. ^ "Ralph Barton: Self-portrait". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2008-01-29. from the exhibition Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery
  12. ^ "Ralph Barton Ends His Life With Pistol". The New York Times. May 21, 1931. p. 1
  13. ^ Zuck, Roy B. (2009). The Speaker's Quote Book: Over 5,000 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional. p. 129. ISBN 9780825441660.
  14. ^ Library of Congress catalog has 1928 for year of publication - see https://lccn.loc.gov/28014706

External links

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