shanmonster | Painted Ladies

Now that I've had a bit of a nap, I'm feeling a bit better, if still a teensy bit wobbly of mind and body. But, to allay my own discomfort, I've decided to put together another miniature gallery, this time dealing with hand-painted photographs of the questionably-virtued women of yesteryear.

A bevy of Edwardian beauties, dating from around 1906. These women were some of the most popular actresses and dancers from Paris. Third from the left is actress Arlette Dorgere.

A portrait of Arlette Dorgere in a very big hat by photographer Leopold Reutlinger (from Tallulahs). She acted in such operettes as La Princesse des Flirts.

Here's another Leopold Reutlinger from Paris. I don't know the identity of the model.

Reutlinger had all the luck with his models. I believe this is Juliette Simon-Girard, French actress and soprano (1859-1954).

This fanciful nude, titled "La Rose," dates from the 1910s and was taken by N. Boulanger. I can't find any information about the photographer.

This photo was taken circa 1905. I don't know the identity of these two dancers, but they may very well be Serpentine dancers. The first Serpentine dancer, Loïe Fuller, "could create fantastic, suggestive shapes on-stage by agitating swaths of silk (special cuts) which had an aluminum ring at the top and from underneath swirl the swaths with a pair of hand held wands attached to the open ends. She would whirl around on a glass platform (new effect added later ) with many different colored lights and different swaths of the cloth shining up and thru. Spotlights whose colors kept changing and mixing. She would place a hypnotic hold on her audiences with billowing shapes such as butterflies, flowers or flames would come alive while she danced."