Endowment renews photographer’s ties to MFA
That headline in the Feb. 2 Living/Arts section of the Boston Herald refers to the endowment for the curator of photography recently presented to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts by Estrellita Karsh, widow of the famous photographer, Yousuf Karsh.
Karsh, born in 1908, left his native Armenia for Canada as a teenager. He came to Boston in 1928 to serve as apprentice to photographer John H. Garo. Four years later he returned to Canada, but he always felt a strong connection to Boston and the MFA where he spent much time during his early years. His wife said, “All his life he referred to this place as his university. This is where it happened for him.”
With the endowment, the Karshes become “Great Benefactors” of the MFA, meaning they have given between $2.5 million and $5 million over their lifetime.
“Yousuf’s story is the story of America. He has his intimations of beauty in this institution and gives back,” Mrs. Karsh said. “I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled with this, and he would be as well.”
Perhaps his best-known work is a 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill. It is one of the 199 images the couple gave the MFA during the 1990s. In the image, Churchill looks sternly at the camera, one hand on his hip, one holding the edge of a chair. He does not look happy.
As Mrs. Karsh tells the story, her husband, known for his soft touch, was invited by Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King to photograph his British counterpart while the latter was in Canada. Yousuf Karsh told Churchill, “I hope I can make a worthy photograph of this occasion.”
Churchill apparently unaware of this plan, replied, “You may take one.”
When Churchill wouldn’t dispose of his cigar, Karsh, “ever so respectfully,” his wife recounted, snatched it from his mouth. Then he took his famous picture.
Ann Thomas, the National Gallery of Canada’s curator of photographs, said the image is a perfect example of the work of “the greatest portrait photographer of all time.”
Though his work is at major museums around the world, Karsh maintained his relationship with Boston. The MFA hosted his first U.S. museum exhibition in 1968 and held another show featuring 120 of his photographs in 1996. The following year, the Karshes moved back to Boston, where he died in 2002.
I attended the 1968 exhibit in Boston and bought a copy of a lovely album of several portraits in that exhibit, and with comments about each portrait on the opposite page.
My album’s portraits are of Brigitte Bardot, Pablo Casals, Sir Winston Churchill, Jean Cocteau, Robert Frost, Alberto Giacometti, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Jacques Lipchitz, John Miro, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, and Pope John XXIII.
It is a wonderful collection.
Wilson speaks at meeting
Program Hostess Nancy Boyce introduced Scott Wilson, speaker at the Feb. 10 meeting of the Woman’s Literary Union at Park Danforth. There were 22 attending, a good number, considering the frigid conditions outside. Coffee and refreshments were served before the 10:30 meeting.
Wilson bought the Carlson, Turner bookstore on Portland’s Congress Street in 1996. He also repairs old books, and does book binding. He appraised a few books brought in by members. He mentioned that buying books on the Internet is competing with bookstore sales, but the chance to browse is an important factor for many book collectors.
He said that books printed before the 1900s generally have more value. Original copies of series we read in our youth, such as the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, are now collectible, as are first edition copies of Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes,” a recent popular novel, and also some etiquette books. Copies of the children’s “My Bookhouse” volumes are coming into popularity again. The copies that we read in the 1920s and 1930s, are dated “1920.”
He suggested that books printed by Grosset and Dunlap and by A. L. Burt are good ones to save. Among my books I have now found “Brave Man” by Ernie Pyle, 1943, printed by Grosset and Dunlap, and “Shifting for Himself” by Horatio Alger Jr., published by A. L. Burt Company, New York. (but the front cover is torn off). A picture beside the first page is printed, 1899.
I suspect that other members attending the WLU meeting are now looking through their bookcases. It is nice to know values.
Mr. Wilson’s talk inspired us who are fond of books and reading.
Another interesting Sunday program
On Sunday, Feb. 5, I was again watching Charles Osgood’s interesting and varied program on Channel 13. It included pictures of President John F. Kennedy’s horse drawn carriage at the time of his funeral, and a sad picture of his lovely wife, Jackie. Then there was a series about rock stars, including Janis Joplin, singing “Me and Bobby McGee.” In spite of all her talent and popularity, she died of a drug overdose at the age of 27; it showed scenes of Kris Kristoferson, the famous composer of the song Janis sang. He praised her rendition of it. He won many prizes for his writing. He is also an actor.
Also included was the popular singer, Barry Manilow. I recall that he was a favorite of Kim Clifford, who had written about him in her column in the Portland newspapers.
Another segment I was interested in was about the opera star, Enrico Caruso, tenor, who filled opera houses in his appearances. He included “O Sole Mio” and “Over there,” the well-known World War I song, in his recordings.
I looked up our recordings of “The Best of Caruso,” which includes two records, mostly operatic arias, and also included are “O Sole Mio” and “Over There.” His voice is thrilling. I wish I could have seen him perform. But I was born in 1918, and Caruso died in 1920, after spitting blood on the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, while singing in “L’Elisir d’Amore.” That opera had been his great success at Italy’s LaScala Opera House.
The royalties from his records paid him more than his earnings at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.
He was a great man with a magnificent voice.
RECIPE
I enjoy using recipes that my mother’s friends gave her, and I like to recall that generation. These are Marguerite Blake’s cookies: they are a favorite with our family.
MARGUERITE BLAKE’S OATMEAL COOKIES
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
Blend these together, then add
1-1/4 cups of rolled oats
1 tsp. milk
2 tsps. vanilla
Mix these together, then add
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsps. cream of tartar
Drop by teaspoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (325 degrees), for about 15 minutes.
(Yields about 40 cookies)
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