Bil Spira: Caricature of Joseph Roth (1939)
Bil Spira: Caricature of Joseph Roth (1939)
Ich kam nie ohne Block und Feder und machte Dutzende von Skizzen von ihm [Joseph Roth] und seinem Stammtisch. Einmal mahnte er: „Vergessen Sie nicht meinen Schnurrbart! Ich bin der letzte einer Reihe von Dichtern und Schriftstellern, die diesem Schnurrbart zur Berühmtheit verholfen haben. Denken Sie an Nietzsche, Verlaine, Peter Altenberg, Rainer Maria Rilke…Was wird nach mir sein, wenn keiner mehr einen so talentierten Schnurrbart trägt?“
[I didn’t go anywhere without my sketchpad and pen and I made dozens of sketches of him [Joseph Roth] and his drinking companions. He once warned me: “Don’t forget my moustache! I am the last in a line of poets and writers who have made this moustache famous. Think of Nietzsche, Verlaine, Peter Altenberg, Rainer Maria Rilke…what will happen when I go, if there is no-one to sport such a talented moustache?” (ed. trans.)]
Bil Spira, Die Legende vom Zeichner, 1997
This is Bil Spira’s (Wilhelm Spira) recollection of his encounter with writer Joseph Roth. They met each other in exile in Paris and met up a number of times in Roth’s local, the Café Tournon. The caricature is one in a whole series of drawings which Spira made of Roth. In this Indian ink drawing, Spira portrays Roth in just a few strokes, to particularly incisive effect. With no body and a portrait composed solely of head and hands, the moustache, which Roth so insistently highlights in his comment, becomes a striking focal point.
Gallery
