Posted on behalf of Todd Kimmell sent via email
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To Encyclopedia Titanica,
I just revisited this thread we started on your site 6 years ago about the rediscovery of a delightful painting of Maude Adams as Peter Pan.
There were several enthusiastic responses from a Ms. Dziedzic at that time, and I thank her for her enthusiasm. That said, since this becomes part of the record I need to take a moment and address a few of her comments so that they don't remain part of the record uncorrected.
Dziedzic states that "Your oil is very like a watercolor , in fact I would bet it is a study for it, owned by Dave Thomson." That simply does not make any sense, though I'm sure Mr. Thomson loves his watercolor and I do not wish to detract from it in any way.
She says "After some careful perusal, Todd, I am afraid your Peter Pan portrait is probably not Maude Adams. Many women actresses played Maude over the years from 1905-1991. The costume in this portrait is nothing like Maude's as you can see, but very much like Betty Bronson's. Betty also has the high cheekbones, and facial expression matching your portrait. She was a great star and made the 1924 Paramount film version of Peter Pan. The Peter Pan collar became a fashion rage and endured well into the early 1960's."
I have been to the Museum of the City of New York to review the Frohman papers and the Adams papers and photographs housed therein, several times. There was a time, six years ago, when I was such a regular at the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library that folks there knew me by name, all in reference to looking for clues to the origins of this painting. While at the NYPL, I came across a series of photos, all of the publicity photo shoot which generated this pose. This pose is one of many, all on the same section of stage, all in the same costume, all Maude Adams, all with her head thrown back, expressing the joy, the freedom of being Peter Pan. The one photo of this series not there is this exact pose, my guess being that it went out to our mysterious 'Best' or to the editor of The Century for his artist Ivanowski to paint his version as part of a series of actress paintings.
I invite Ms. Dziedzic to visit the same collection and seek out these exact photos. I believe it will give her a fresh, informed perspective, and they are just genuinely exciting to see in general.
The Best signature, which we believe to be an in joke between Frohman and Richard Watson Gilder and George de forest Brush, is done in a very strong art nouveau style, and the frame, which the painting has never been out of, is consistent with late 19th early 20 century framing. To see a treasure trove of similar work all in one place, visit The Players Club. The collection that lines their walls is mind boggling.
That said, again in reference to Ms. Dziedzic's comments, no one in the 1920s would sign something strongly in a style that would be two decades out of fashion at that point, or frame such a work in a way that would already seem less than modern.
I mention all this now because we are revisiting the research concerning this painting, and I would like anyone with comments or suggestions, including Ms. Dziedzic, to please feel free to put those ideas, facts, theories, etc. forward. Somewhere, there are photos of this painting on the wall of SOMEONE'S home or office or club or what have you, whether that is Charles Frohman or his brother Daniel, Homer Saint Gaudens or John Drew or Ethel Barrymore, or any of the dozens of fascinating fin de siecle characters that meet in one way or another at the intersection that is this painting.
A last note... I will make every effort to publish the aforementioned series of publicity photos. They were clearly meant to emphasize something that is inexplicably missing from almost all of the Peter Pan material I have seen or collected from that period. The beaming, exuberant joy and freedom of being that boy, swinging through the trees, fighting pirates, leading his Lost Boys on adventures, and even flying. That is the character that millions of Maude Adams fans fell in love with, and that she is clearly acting her way through in the photos. That joy is captured in our painting, yet entirely lost in the much grander painting from the same photo commissioned by Gilder and painted by Ivanowski, which ultimately feels like just a handsome illustration, void of life.
I include a jpeg of the painting and ask you to post it with this missive for reference. Please note that the image shows the painting brightened by Photoshop, that it is actually much darker than you see, both the painting and the frame. We made the decision to not have it restored yet, certainly not until it has found its permanent home, whether that is an individual or an institution. At that point the new owners will almost certainly cause it to be cleaned and restored.
All the best,
Todd Kimmell
