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Doing the cakewalk – in bronze

Posted in Art, collectibles, and Postcards

Back in November, my auction buddy Janet found four neat postcards among a lot of cards she had just bought. They were images of two black couples demonstrating how to do the cakewalk around 1904.

Well, at another auction this week, she fell in love with a pair of bronze figures of a boy and girl – who appeared to be black – dancing the cakewalk. The bronzes were to be auctioned near the end of a Decorative Arts sale – and likely would pull in a lot more money than she was willing to spend – and we left early. I encouraged her to leave a bid, but she didn’t.

I was curious about the bronzes and the maker. The auction house described the pieces as Vienna bronzes, “youthful male and female figures,” signed by T. Curts. The dancers looked black to us, based on their detailed facial features.   

In my research, I found that T. Curts was a pseudonym for a noted Austrian sculptor named Carl Kauba, who was born in Vienna in 1865 and died in 1922. He was known for his bronzes of the American West – Native Americans and cowboys – although there is some debate over whether he ever visited this country. One account said that he did, and was also inspired by the German writer Carl May, who wrote about the West, and the stories of photographers and illustrators. Others say he never did. I found very little definitive background information on Kauba.

Kauba was also known for what were called “naughties,” or mechanical erotic sculptures. Jennmaur Gallery in San Francisco, whose website has examples of his works, noted that the most collectible and rarest of his naughties was “Metamorphosis (circa 1910),” a colorful nude butterfly woman in bronze. Another piece I saw on the web was a female figure whose metal dress could be slipped off, exposing her nudity.  

The sculptor also used the named Karl Thenn, according to the gallery, most likely to avoid copyright issues since he worked for several foundries (the bronzes at auction had the inscription “Copyright Thenn Vienna”). He apparently cast his clay models at local foundries after fashioning them at a studio in his home.

Some of his bronzes were imported to the United States between 1895 and 1912, and cast at a New York foundry.

How Kauba came across two black children doing the cakewalk was a mystery I couldn’t solve. The cakewalk was pretty popular in minstrel shows in the late 1800s and at the turn of the century.

His depiction of the children were not stereotypical but natural – much unlike the way blacks were portrayed around the same time in this country. There was movement in the pieces, and these children were having fun. The boy had a smile on his face, and the girl tilted her head, her eyes closed, her thoughts focused on the cakewalk steps.

What complimentary images could he have seen of black children doing the cakewalk? Did he intentionally decide not to mimic the common portrayal of blacks at the turn of the century? I’d love to know.

These were apparently not the only bronze cakewalk figures he did of black children. I found others signed by Kauba himself on the websites of another gallery and auction house. 

This was an interesting and unusual find for me, especially after coming across the cakewalk postcards. They would have been a nice companion to Janet’s postcard collection. I’m not sure if they would have been affordable because I found that Kauba’s bronzes sell for thousands of dollars. I know, though, that at auction most things can be gotten for much less. Just depends on who wants them at a given time.

NOTE: I found out later that the Kauba cakewalk bronzes sold for $325.

6 Comments

  1. You did a wonderful job photographing them at almost the same angle as the photographs. How did you know?

    March 16, 2012
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    • sherry
      sherry

      I shot these angles because I loved the expressions evoked by both the models’ bodies and the fun in their faces. These were just the best shots. I checked your site & the photos of Rudy & Fredy Walker appear to the same images as Kauba’s sculptures.

      March 16, 2012
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  2. These are probably not cold painted bronzes. I’d seen these sculptures described as painted bronzes at one site and then discovered numerous cold painted bronzes by Carl Kauba in searches. But I jumped too hastily to a conclusion.

    I don’t see any paint on these, and those which are described as cold painted bronzes which I’ve looked at show definite signs of having had paint in various colors added as highlights or to enhance certain features.

    March 16, 2012
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  3. Sherry,

    The models for this pair of cold-painted bronzes were well known when the Paris cakewalk craze was in full bloom in 1903, and for several years afterward. Here is the first paragraph from their profile at the Oxford African American Studies Center:

    Walker, Ruth “Rudy” and Frederick “Fredy” Walker (31 Aug. 1891–after 1928) and (9 Nov. 1893–May 1977), known as The Walkers, song and dance entertainers and actors, were both born in Chicago. It appears that at some time in 1902 the two juvenile dancers, brother and sister, traveled to Europe in the company of their mother, Ella Walker, herself an artist, born in Chicago in 1960 or 1964, according to her own conflicting statements. That they traveled with their own mother is mentioned in June 1903 and again in the winter 1904/1904 in Vienna, December 1906 in Stockholm, in November 1907 in Berlin, and again in February 1908 in Copenhagen. Billed as “Les Enfants Nègres,” their presentations of the cakewalk dance attracted a lot of attention at the Nouveau Cirque at Paris and paved the way for a long career in Europe. They became so popular that they inspired a composer, a sculptor, and a movie film director, as well as cartoonists. Their portraits appear on many postcards; in fact, they might well be the most often photographed black entertainers of the period. The cards show them in various dance poses—sometimes together and sometimes solo. Mostly they wear tall, calf-length socks and white dance shoes. The boy wore a white dance costume or gymnast’s suit with a black sash, whereas the girl wore a short skirt.

    To reach this page without an account you have to open a cache, rather than go directly to the present page. Do a google search on “Oxford Fredy.” Because of the unusual spelling of the boy’s familiar name, the page you want will be the first Google result. I didn’t give you the URL because it’s very long.

    See also the two features on Rudy and Fredy Walker at my site Songbook1.wordpress.com:

    1. Rudy and Fredy Walker, c.1903: cake walking babies from home (http://songbook1.wordpress.com/pp/fx/0-new-features/cake-walking-babies-from-home/) — published 1 March 2012

    2. Cakewalk dancers Rudy and Fredy Walker: sculptures by Carl Kauba (http://songbook1.wordpress.com/pp/fx/0-new-features/cakewalk-dancers-rudy-and-fredy-walker-sculptures-by-carl-kauba/)

    March 15, 2012
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    • sherry
      sherry

      Hi Jim. Fantastic! I’m so happy to have some info on these bronzes. My auction buddy Janet and I were certain that the models were black, and this seems to confirm it. I wonder if Kauba actually saw them perform or created his figures from photos or drawings. I’ll do some more research on the Walkers for a follow-up post.

      Sherry

      March 16, 2012
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