Thursday, 7 May 2026

1714) James "Shanghai" Kelly

James Kelly, better known as "Shanghai" Kelly. American crimp of the 19th century who kidnapped men and forced them to work on ships. The terms "crimping" and "shanghaiing" are used to describe this type of work. A legendary figure in San Francisco history, Kelly was known for supplying or shanghaiing men to understaffed ships.

Kelly kept a boarding house in San Francisco. He also ran a number of bars and a saloon. These businesses provided Kelly with a steady supply of victims.

In the early 1870s, Kelly was reported to have shanghaied 100 men for three understaffed ships in a single evening. 

Actor Robert Taylor played Kelly in the 1967 episode "Shanghai Kelly's Birthday Party" of the syndicated television series Death Valley Days, which Taylor also hosted.

The Irish music band Gaelic Storm released a song about Kelly, entitled "Shanghai Kelly", on the 2017 album Go Climb a Tree.


- "Kelly wore a red beard and had a fiery temper to match."   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kelly_(crimper) 


- "Shanghai Kelly was a dumpy little man. He had a mass of riotous red hair, and a huge red beard. He had fury written all over his ugly face." https://www.realsanfranciscotours.com/crime-seen-san-franciscos-barbary-coast/ 

Source




Wednesday, 6 May 2026

1713) Thutmose IV

Thutmose IV. 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC. He was the son of Amenhotep II and Tiaa and the grandfather of Akhenaten.

The currently preferred reconstruction usually comes to an accession date around 1401 BC or 1400 BC for the beginning of Thutmose IV's reign. The length of his reign is not clear, but today most scholars ascribe him a 10-year reign from 1401 to 1392 BC, within a small margin of error.


- "His hair, which is parted in the middle, is about 16 cm (6.3 in) long and dark reddish-brown."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_IV#Burial_and_mummy 

(As usual with many Egyptian mummies, it is not clear whether Thutmose IV's hair was naturally red/brown of if this colour was a consequence of the henna used during the embalming. A simple examination of hair roots would solve the mystery)

Statue of Thutmose IV and his mother Tiaa.


Monday, 4 May 2026

1712) Erich Mühsam

Erich Mühsam (1878 – 1934). German antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which he served five years in prison.

Also a cabaret performer, he achieved international prominence during the years of the Weimar Republic for works which, before Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, condemned Nazism and satirized the future dictator. Mühsam was tortured and murdered in the Oranienburg concentration camp in 1934.


- "... bushy red hair and wild red beard crowding an emaciated face; scrawny body and wiry fingers."   https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1942&context=bts 


Portrait by Auguste Herbin


Friday, 3 April 2026

1711) George Owen Wynne Apperley

George Owen Wynne Apperley (1884-1960). British painter, described as “one of the finest” of the late Romantic artists.

In 1917 he moved to Spain, abandoning his British wife, Hilda Pope, and family, and established in the district of Granada. He was forced to leave Spain in 1932, when his conservative political stance regarding the Second Spanish Republic led to the bombing of his house. He moved with his second family, his muse and later wife, Enriqueta Contreras and their two sons, to Tangier, Morocco.

Self-portrait (1915)


1710) Stanisław Wyspiański

Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (1869 – 1907). Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artistic premises of the Young Poland movement.

Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists in Poland under the foreign partitions, and combined modernism with traditional Polish folk and Romantic themes.

 Wyspiański's artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, there are views of Cracow (drawings, sketch-books, oil-paintings, pastel drawings), portraits and self-portraits, designs of stained glass windows and paintings, illustrations, graphic art, and designs for furniture and interiors.







1709) Józef Mehoffer

Józef Mehoffer (1869 – 1946). Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time.

Mehoffer studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and in Paris, at the Académie Colarossi. There Mehoffer began painting portraits, often of people of historical significance. He later expanded his work to include different techniques, such as graphic art, stained glass, textiles, chalk drawings, etchings and book illustrations. He produced set designs for theatre, and stylized furniture designs.

Mehoffer received international acclaim for his stained glass windows in the Gothic St Nicholas Collegiate Church in Fribourg, Switzerland produced in 1895–1936. He also produced many stained glasses for several churches in Poland and Austria. Mehoffer explored various media further throughout his career to include a range of applied arts in his projects. He manufactured a multiplicity of book covers, ornaments and posters. Mehoffer – aside from his versatility in studio art – became known for his frescoes often reminiscent of medieval art. 

In September 1899, Mehoffer married Jadwiga Janakowska, whom he had met five years earlier in Paris. They had a son, Zbigniew (1900–1985). Janakowska was the artist's muse and frequently posed for his portrait paintings.





Portrait by Stanisław Wyspiański 



1708) Marie Thérèse Zakrzewska

Marie Thérèse Zakrzewska, also known as Ata or Ama (1880? - 1920). Polish artists' model and noblewoman.

She was born (probably in Krakòw) into an aristocratic family and had a younger sister, Natalia. They were both known for their beauty. 

Ata was the favourite sitter of the painter Teodor Axentowicz, who made her famous in all artistic circles of Poland.

In 1903 she married Italian politician Alessandro Tasca Filangeri, Principe di Cutò (1874 - 1943), who was called "il principe rosso" (the red prince) because of his socialist ideas. The couple had two children: Gioia and Alessandro. One of Filangeri's sisters, Beatrice, was the mother of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of the novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). 

Ata Zakrzewska and her daughter Gioia

Wiosna (The Spring), by Teodor Axentowicz

Rudowłosa (The Redhead), by Teodor Axentowicz


Poster for the 2nd exhibition of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka"