TRANSVAAL PICTURE POSTCARDS MESSAGES - 'Bouguereau'

F. Courtenay Marsh, ‘LE NU AU SALON’

Jeff Woolgar

The picture post card
The sepia photograph with Captain Francis Courtenay Marsh seated on grass with a newspaper is address to ‘Mrs. A.L. ‘Marsh, aux soin de Mrs. Fredrick Feist’ in Sydenham, London.The 1d. scarlet stamp is cancelled by a broken inner circle postmark and set at ‘Pretoria 15.Oct.06. 10---AM 4’.

The message
Captain Francis Courtenay Marsh (born 27^th April 1867) is seen here while on manoeuvres on the Veldt. He was probably fairly new to Africa as he had been in India and took part in the Waziristan Expedition 1894-5. As an officer of the 2^nd Border Regiment he was stationed at Potchefstroom Cantonment, although in this picture he was possibly closer to Roberts Heights where later he was camped as there was no room for him or his troops in the Artillery Barracks. His exploits with photography have already been recorded in The Transvaal Philatelist.¹

Marsh sent several photographic postcards with similar photographic themes showing him or other officers; all alluding to famous paintings of the day. These picture titles would have been well known to his class of officer and his family in the UK, Malta and Russian occupied Poland. His manuscript caption on the postcard illustrated here reads: “LE NU AU SALON” and “BAIN AU JOURNAL d’apres Bouguereau”. He is referring to the artist William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). Bouguereau had died the previous year.

Marsh subscribed to the beautifully designed and printed monthly magazine, The Studio² and we thought he had read about the artist’s demise. However, we could find no reference to Bouguereau in the 1905/6 editions of The Studio. Bouguereau was an academic painter who taught scholarly technique and workmanship of classic painting in Paris. He specialised in symbolism which often depicted nude women in the guise of titles such as, Return of Spring, Nymphs and Satyr, La Toilette de Venus, Après le bain and so on. His pictures in the Louvre were copied by the next generation of artists, such as Félix Vallotton.³

Here Marsh holds a copy of The Illustrated Western Weekly News, 25^th August 1906, No.2,439. The copy at the British Library confirms the headline which reads: “Our Photographic Competition / Lifeboat Day at Newquay / Town Beach Returning to the Boat House. / Photo by Mr. S. Lewis, 11 Beachfield Avenue, Newquay.” Perhaps Marsh had entered the photographic competition and was thanking his family for sending him the Cornish newspaper.

References

1 Woolgar, J., (2004), Paget self-toning paper, The Transvaal Philatelist, v.39, No.4 (152), November 2004, pp.ix-x.

2 The Studio, An illustrated magazine of fine and applied art, a monthly London publication, was first published in March 1893

during the initial period of the Art Nouveau movement. Some issues were also published in New York.

3 Cassou, Jean, (1986), The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism, Omega Books, London.

Note

A slightly shorter and similar article was previous published: The Transvaal Philatelist, Vol.54, No.2 (203), July 2019, p.73.