Moscoso's Carmen Mondragón poster |
Rites of Spring 1967 / Neon Rose series |
Carmen Mondragón
postcards
A stunning January 1967 psychedelic rock concert poster by San Francisco artist Victor Moscoso features a young, semi-naked woman who most commentators believe to be American silent film actress Theda Bara (1885-1955). Bara is well known for her erotic portrayals of historic characters such as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra (69-30 BC). Research by the present author into the poster gave rise to a blog entitled
Moscoso's Mondragón. Why the strange title? Well, it seems that the individual depicted in the poster - therein mostly an outline in bright orange and pink - was actually Carmen Mondragón (1893-1978), a young Mexican woman who, through various circumstances, found herself and her family exiled to Spain in 1913, just prior to the commencement of Word War I - the so-called Great War. Carmen, the daughter of a wealthy Mexican general, was very much the bohemian. This manifested in her early marriage, engagement with the Parisian art world, and an open attitude throughout her life in regard to sex, sexual relationships and the artistic portrayal of her naked body - a process in which she actively participated, both physically and artistically. Upon moving to Paris during the war she took up nude modelling for artists and photographers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau. She also had many lovers during this period. In 1921 Mondragón and her husband returned to Mexico to begin studying art, though the pair separated almost immediately, with Mondragón - now going by the name
Nahui Olin - continuing on with her erratic and erotic lifestyle. It was therefore interesting to come across a research article on the photographer
Edward Weston which mentioned her. Weston had photographed Mondragón in Mexico during1923, and with that article an image (illustrated below) was included of a 3½ x 5½ inch French postcard circa 1918, though not taken by Weston. It purported to show Mondragón semi-naked and regaled in Cleopatra-style head and body ornaments.
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PC Paris 1758 #1
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It was clear, therefore, that the woman in the Moscoso poster was Carmen Mondragón and not Theda Bara. The Mexican exile was something of a chameleon, and photographs of her over time - from youth through to middle age - present her in a number of guises, some almost indistinguishable from the general image we have, and almost like a completely different person. For example, during the mid 1920s she adopted an Aztec persona and one photograph portrays a dark, bronze skinned, gaunt faced Buddha-like figure. In addition, Olin was no shrinking violet in regards to both body and beliefs. Upon her return to Mexico she set up a stall in Mexico City where copies of her artworks and of her many nude photographs were sold. It is therefore possible that the aforementioned postcard was one of those she offered or sale and, as a result, happened to be found almost half a century later by Victor Moscoso - perhaps in a San Francisco market or Head shop. Upon finishing the aforementioned blog on the 1967 poster, the author sought to see if anything further could be discovered about the image.
PC Paris #1758
The postcard in question - it, or a copy, was used by Moscoso - was printed by the Paris firm of Papeteries de Levallois-Clichy (aka P.C. Paris) around 1918. At the bottom left of the image is the company monogram PC Paris and the number 1758. This number did not simply refer to that single postcard, but to a group of postcards from the same photograph session featuring the same young woman. In fact, three different images from that session have been identified and are reproduced herein. Two bear the monogram PC Paris 1758. The third has only been seen in what appears to be a cropped copy and likely bore the monogram on the bottom right of the print. The original postcards were usually printed in a sepia tone, though black and white is also common for the period.
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PC Paris 1758 #2
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In the first image Mondragón's hands are flat and her arms box-like and drawn together towards her chin, in a pose replicating one made popular around that time by the vampish Theda Bara. In the second pose her hands are by her side, though still drawn out flat and at an angle to her arms. In the third, they are held around her neck, as though holding her head, with her arms bent.
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| PC Paris 1758 #3 |
All three poses aim to expose as much of her naked flesh as possible. Of note is Mondragón's visual expression - a relaxed, very slight, rather indifferent smile, whether she is looking to the left or right. This is a person who has done this before. Typical for the time, her skin is presented by the photograph as pale - especially her face which likely has makeup applied - and is of a perfectly uniform texture; her eyes feature a small amount of dark eyeliner and her lips are similarly darkened by lipstick; her black hair is short cropped but still seen extending beyond the ornamental head covering down the back and sides of her neck, with a few curls evident. She is regaled in headware with a prominent snake feature, plus two sets of arm bracelets, two beaded necklaces, a neck ornament and a waist ornament extending down the front of her body between her legs. Her perfectly proportioned body portrays an image that is sensual and erotic. No doubt the postcard was popular, along with thousands of others of its kind, amongst the men then fighting on the battlefields of France or passing through centres such as Paris on the way to or from the war. Numerous publications have discussed elements of the French 'non-topographical' nude postcard phenomena of the 1910s and 1920s, and collectors have long been active in this area. PC Paris #1758 is a perfect example of this popular form of erotica. Many of these French postcards were high quality, photographic prints on card, rather than cheaper offset or photolithographic copies on paper. As a result, the photographic detail in the original postcards can be very fine, as though taken from a studio negative in a first generation print. Movie stills of the era were also of a similar high photographic quality.
Rebirth
PC Paris 1758 continues to be popular, with original copies selling for hundreds of dollars. It has also been commercialised as a copyright free image andt can be purchased online in digital reprint form as a paper or canvas print, or even as the cover of a cigarette case, with lurid embellishment and colourisation.
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Canvas print, 2021
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Cigarette case, 2021
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Apart from its use in the Moscoso poster, other artists have reproduced it, with Nicholas A. Volpe naturally titling his work Theda Bara as Cleopatra. The original image with the hands extended downwards has been made use of in this less than perfect replication of the postcard. The closed eyes, small and purt red lips, lumpy body and washed out ornamental lack of detail fails to capture the magic of the original studio photograph.
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Nicholas A. Volpe, Theda Bara as Cleopatra
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There is no doubt that this, and other iconic images will continue to resonate as representatives of a distinct era in both postcard and erotica production, spurred on by the events of the Great War and continuing a trend which had begun in France during the 1890s.
Who is PC Paris 1729?
Whilst researching the PC Paris 1758 image, the author came across a similar, though earlier series of images labelled PC Paris 1729. Were these postcards of a slightly younger Carmen Mondragón?
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PC Paris 1729
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The woman in the picture is dressed as a gypsy; she wears an open-faced smile; her hair, eyes, lips, nose and body are similar to Mondragón, though her face is slightly plumper, fuller. A variant of the above is also known. It bears a monograph and ink inscription that reads: PC Paris 1729/1.
This second image is decidedly more erotic than the first, with the woman touching her breast and her face expressing a look of sexual ecstasy. In both images she is looking away from the camera, perhaps somewhat embarrassed and not confident in what she is doing. It is tempting to cite this as another studio portrait session featuring Carmen Mondragón. However, there are other postcards which portray individuals who have similar features and are of a similar 'type', as in the way they are presented by the PC Paris photographers. A good example is PC Paris 1730, which once again presents a young woman in gypsy garb and is in all likelihood the same person as in PC Paris 1729.
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PC Paris 1730
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As such, the aforementioned postcards, and others from the PC Paris studio (viz. PC Paris 1624 illustrated below), plant in the mind of the author doubts as to whether PC Paris 1758 is actually Carmen Mondragón. Assuming it is, then it is likely that she undertook a number of session for the studio over the period 1917-18.
Not having read some of the Spanish language biographers of Mondragón - which may actually address this issue - it is difficult to tell, based on the photographic images alone, which ones feature her. However, with both the Weston article and The Julia Secession website stating PC Paris 1758 is her, I will accept their determination for the time being. I will also suggest that PC Paris 1729 and PC Paris 1730 are both the younger Carmen Mondragón.
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References
Dupouy, Alexandre, Erotic French Postcards, Flammarion, 2009.
French postcard, Wikipedia [webpage], 2021.
Hammond, Paul, French Undressing: Naughty Postcards from 1900 to 1920, Bloomsbury, London, 1988.
Stevens, Martin, French Postcards: An Album of Vintage Erotica, Universe Publishing, New York, 2007.
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Moscoso's Carmen Mondragón poster |
Rites of Spring 1967 / Neon Rose series |
Carmen Mondragón
postcards
Last updated: 29 November 2021
Michael Organ
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