In Appreciation of W. T. Benda

Artwork by extraordinary Polish illustrator and mask-maker, W. T. Benda. Music: Le bananier by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, played by Richard Burnett

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Benda
• Polish
• illustration
• portraits
• masks
• beautiful
• women
• Gottschalk
• piano
• fashion
• style
• Richard
• Burnett

[mahastee]

These are so lovely. I love how you have given each pic enough time to break free of the *horrible* distortion youtube can cause.

BTW, the images at 1.43 and 1.48 are gorgeous, but they aren't by Benda. The first is a portrait of actress Laura La Plante by Jewett Bubar, and the other (with the wonderful golden background) is... Maybe Earl Christy or Marland Stone?

Anyone know?

[irwin1021]

Thank you for your kind comment, and thanks for catching my mistake. You are absolutely correct, and I was very impressed with your knowledge of the illustrators.1.48 is Louise Brooks and I would love to credit the correct illustrator. While accumulating images, I found Benda to be so special , that I attributed all related styles to him, without doing proper research. Thanks again for the heads up. I hope we can attribute the Louise Brooks piece to the correct artist. Anyone know for sure?

[mahastee]

The Louise Brooks is by Modest Stein, created for the cover of Picture Play magazine in 1927 :)

[babyshape]

i'm friends with his great grandson, who currently displayed his masks for a senior portfolio project- they are so amazing. he was a fantastically talented man.

[OxiDim]

Thank you! amazing work!

[ralex65]

Walt's comment and WD exhibition, where one can see an example of Benda mask was my first contact of this artist. I have never heard about him. But perhaps some of those pictures looks vaguely familiar. On corbis one can see some persons from early 40's posing this benda mask, but the masks seems to me not fitting well with dresses of 40's.

But these ladies are certainly lovely. Thank's fore the video.

[moviefan1955]

When Walt Disney was advising his artists and animators how to create the character of the Wicked Queen for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs he said he wanted her to resemble a cross between the Big Bad Wolf and a Benda Mask! Now we can see what he meant!

[mahastee]

I didn't recognise Louise Brooks with her hair like that, what a lovely image it is.

PS, I don't actually know that much about illustration in general, I'm just hoplessly devoted to WT... "Special" is the word!

:-)

[mahastee]

You guess right, most of these are taken from Benda's magazine covers of the 20's & 30's.

He really was the most extraordinarily talented and prolific artist, the 'Benda Girl' was but one facet of Benda's artistic prowess.

Thanks for posting Irwin!

[macvoutie]

These illustrations are magnificent. I'm guessing some are from the early 1900's on through the late 20's. In an age of Rap and Hip Hop, its good to have someone help us rediscover the past.