Leo Bensemann

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1912, d.1986

Feodor Chaliapine (Don Quixote)

  • Ink
  • Presented to the Gallery by Mary Bensemann, 1995
  • 355 x 250mm
  • 96/44

Tags: caricatures, hair, men (male humans), monochrome, musicians, people (agents), performing artists, profiles (figures), singers

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Fyodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), the great Russian bass, toured New Zealand in September 1926. J C Williamson's advertisement in The Evening Post billed him as 'The greatest singer the world has ever known.'

Exhibition History

Leo Bensemann St Olaf c.1937. Oil on canvas on board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Lawrence Baigent / Robert Erwin Bequest 2003. Reproduced with permission
Bad Hair Day
Image: uploads/2022_07/96_44.jpg

Related

Notes
Chaliapin

Chaliapin

In our leatest exhibition Bad Hair Day there is a caricature of the singer Chaliapin in the role of Don Quixote. Chaliapin visited New Zealand in 1926 but it seems likely that this drawing originates with the film Don Quixote, directed by Georg Pabst, in which Chaliapin starred.

This film opened in Christchurch in September 1934