# An Odd Photograph of Wagner



## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

http://www.amazon.com/In-Search-Wagner-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844673448/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp_1

The photo of Wagner shown on this book has always looked peculiar to me and I have never been able to find out anything about it. It hardly looks like Wagner at all, though I realize that, assuming it is in fact Wagner, he must be quite young here. The bone structure of the face looks much softer here than in other pictures of Wagner, especially in the jaw. Does anyone have any information as to the dating and context of this picture?

I have also seen it written that this photo taken in 1860 is the earliest. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Richard_Wagner,_Paris,_1861.jpg

Yet the man depicted on the aforementioned book cover looks a bit younger. And look at the difference in the prominence of the chin.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

It looks like Wagner to me.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Yep, Wagner.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

Fine, but when was it taken?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I was a little taken aback - it looked more like a younger Cesar Franck to me.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> I was a little taken aback - it looked more like a younger Cesar Franck to me.


Haha, I knew I wasn't alone. I think the portrait is also much more attractive than those usually seen of Wagner in which he looks terribly austere. This man looks quite handsome here.


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

I love seeing pictures of 1800s people. They are close enough in history to be photographed, but are yet so far back that it is mysteriously amazing to realize that someone we usually only read in textbooks and see in paintings had existed physically, in the same world that we live in now, having the same emotions and desires and such. It's even more amazing to go back further and time, and realize that people like Plato and Aristotle aren't just spirits that protrude over Western Civilization, but were actually REAL people who lived and ate and thought and such. 

Yeah, this is Wagner though.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

It is by Nadar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar_(photographer)

http://www.tablada.unam.mx/archivovis/fotograf/imagenes/i122-640.html 
http://www.myspace.com/histoiredeparis/photos/27210519

There's a discussion about it here http://humanities.music.composers.wagner.narkive.com/aEUDOMYY/this-ain-t-wagner-is-it

This book about Nadar mentions in the footnotes "an unknown man once thought to be Richard Wagner" http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...voDABQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=wagner&f=false

Certainly doesn't look like Wagner to me.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

Many thanks! I was starting to think I was just about the only one who noticed. Isn't it strange that a scholarly publisher would choose an illegitimate photograph for their cover? What an embarrassing thing! Yes, I keep looking at the picture and it just isn't right. Wagner had a much more sharply defined, aquiline profile. Good find!

I also saw this photo used in a video discussion about Wagner. I told my girlfriend it couldn't be Wagner and she thought I was crazy.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> It looks like Wagner to me.


I don't know if I agree with either of you two. It looks different than him somehow.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

clavichorder said:


> I don't know if I agree with either of you two. It looks different than him somehow.


It isn't Wagner, see quack's post above.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

That's not wagner


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Here are some pics of Wagner at about that age. About the only things lake look like Wagner are the beard and receeding hair line.



















Besides, the clothes are far too plain for a man with Wagners tastes


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> I don't know if I agree with either of you two. It looks different than him somehow.


lol still looks like Wagner to me, even with the comparative pictures provided by Dr. P. BUT I have never been visually perceptive, which is why I'm a musician.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_10_img0707.jpg

Look at Wagner's profile. There's no way this other man could have that profile.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

The ears and chin are identical to Wagner's.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Logos said:


> http://www.amazon.com/In-Search-Wagner-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844673448/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp_1
> 
> The photo of Wagner shown on this book has always looked peculiar to me and I have never been able to find out anything about it. It hardly looks like Wagner at all, though I realize that, assuming it is in fact Wagner, he must be quite young here. The bone structure of the face looks much softer here than in other pictures of Wagner, especially in the jaw. Does anyone have any information as to the dating and context of this picture?
> 
> ...


Maybe Wagner had plastic surgery.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

I wonder whether they purposefully chose this mislabeled photograph to make a point about the search for the 'real' Wagner. Who knows?


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Logos said:


> I wonder whether they purposefully chose this mislabeled photograph to make a some point about the search for the 'real' Wagner. Who knows?


You think too much about how the man looked like.


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## Logos (Nov 3, 2012)

It's not that, I just thought it was funny that a long, scholarly publication about someone can't even get the main subject's photo right. I'm not a believer in physiognomy or or anything like that.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Logos said:


> It's not that, I just thought it was funny that a long, scholarly publication about someone can't even get the main subject's photo right. I'm not a believer in physiognomy or or anything like that.


You should send a letter of enquiry to the publisher.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> You should send a letter of enquiry to the publisher.


Insufficient. Nothing less than a stiff letter of protest will serve! These so-called "scholarly" publications have ridden roughshod over us, in their overweening arrogance, for far too long. Action is essential!


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