A recurring theme that keeps coming up in what we learn here through postage stamps is what a productive period there was in the arts in the first decade of the 20th century. Here we have a Bohemian poet who was so taken by how sculptor Auguste Rodin studied a subject before sculpting it he became his secretary and used what he learned to develop a new type of poetry, thing poems. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The image on the stamp is an accurate one of a dark mysterious bohemian figure. Quite apart from the aristocracy of Vienna in Rilke’s time. Yet this fellow, born in Prague who accomplished most of his best work in Paris and Zurich is being portrayed as Austrian. This is based on the borders of then Austria Hungary of the time. This was from 1976 before the EU was actively began minimizing Euro nations differences. To American eyes, it seems a little odd.
Todays stamp is issue A465, a 3 Schilling stamp issued by Austria on December 26th, 1976. It was a single stamp issue on the 50th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s death. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Rene Maria Rilke was born in Prague to wealthy parents. His mother was distraught over loosing Rene’s older sister at ten days of age. She treated and dressed Rene as a girl. When Rene’s parent’s marriage broke up, his father sent him to military school in hopes of toughening him up but Rene dropped out. At 16 he was on is own. He took up with a much older married female psychoanalyst Lou Andreas Salome. She made Rene a frequent travel companion visiting European artistic salons. She helped him prepare for University examinations and encouraged him to change his name to Rainer to be more masculine. After University in Switzerland he made is way to Paris. He married and stayed married to sculptor Clara Westoff but they were separated for most of their marriage.
In Paris Rilke became the secretary of sculptor Auguste Rodin. He also wrote a biography and an academic presentation on Rodin. Rodin made extremely in depth studies of his subjects before sculpting. This inspired Rilke to change the style of his poems from the subjects of romance or loneliness to long poems that very closely and realistically described things. The subjects of his thing poems were often flowers and written as sonnets and mostly written in French.
As with many other creative types in that period, World War I intruded. He was banned from Paris and his apartment there was raided with his possessions taken and auctioned off due to his Austrian citizenship. In Prague, he was deeply depressed and desperately trying to avoid military service. His beliefs became more left wing and political. In 1916 he was able with rich patronage to get established in a Swiss mansion. He was a big proponent of the Bavarian Soviet Republic but took it hard when it failed. In the early 1920s, there was finally another productive period for his poetry before succumbing to poor health from leukemia that ended his life in 1926.
Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.