French transvestite postcards, circa 1900-1925.

ArchivalResource

Koskovich, Gerard,. French transvestite postcards, circa 1900-1925.

French transvestite postcards, circa 1900-1925.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64092037

Postcards portraying cross-dressing and female and male impersonators in France, both real-photo postcards, some hand-colored, and those printed using heliogravure and offset methods. All are printed between circa 1900 and 1925 in France, except for four printed in other European countries, and all the performers appeared in France. Many images are photographs of performers on amateur, café-concert, music-hall, and legitimate stages at the high-point of cross-dressing as a form of entertainment in France. In one postcard, Jeanne Bloch is imitating Armand Fallières, President of the French Republic, 1906-1913. Eleven portray Robert Bertin, one of the leading female impersonators of the Belle Epoque, including images of his expert imitations of the famous singer Yvette Guilbert, who appeared in the paintings of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and the dancer Polaire, a lover of novelist Colette. The second major category of postcards are gallant visual narratives of women being wooed by other women dressed as men. Included are ten hand-colored postcards in a die-cut holder, titled "Les Cerises," Paris: Kunzli Frères, circa 1900.

80 items.

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