Paintings for tableaux vivants?

[Anna Allen]

What were some popular paintings in this era that people may have used for tableaux vivants? My group of girls and I are thinking of doing a few tableaux at an event in the near future and for some reason I cannot think of any paintings at the moment. We're all girls, so it might be a bit difficult for us to do if there were any males in the painting. Any help is much appreciated!

[MissMaggie]

You may want to look at "The Sociable or 1001 Home Amusements" by George Auther. Reproduction copies can be had from the Mescher's and I'm sure by other repro book sellers. The book has a rather large section on Tableaux Vivants.

[BHoover]

Great book. Original copies of it are also out there. I found one (in great shape) on Ebay a couple of years ago for $6. Just have to keep an eye open.

[VIrginia Mescher]

We have purchased original copies online but for regular use, we like the reproduction copy. We don't have to worry about using it, taking it to events, putting stickies in it, or slapping in on the copier for extra copies of a tableaux or game.

[tenthmo]

Dear Miss Jane,
Members of the Ladies Union Aid Society (Missouri Division) hosted a Temperence Rally at the 125th Gettysburg in 1988. They had a tableau called YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION, a Promise to Mother. I invite you to view images from that tableau by visiting:
http://raytownbob.freeservers.com/photo5.html

In the 1980's, our LUAS group hosted several tableaus, mostly at Fort Scott, Kansas during a garrison event. Another one they did was more patriotic.
I'll be glad to answer any more questions about tableaus if I can.

[ElizabethClark]

Vintage Volumes (the Mescher's site) can be found at http://www.vintagevolumes.com Great selection in general, too!

[markj]

Hi,

You may also want to look through the back pages of "Godey's Ladies Book" issues for the 1850's and 1860's. I remember at least one issue that actually carried a very detailed diagram showing how to set up a tableaux vivant. I have copied this and, if need be, can dig it up for your perusal and edification.

I think "Peterson's" and "Arthur's" magazines also discuss this pastime as well.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[vbetts]

Here's one mention of an engraving as inspiration:

PEORIA (IL) MORNING MAIL, February 22, 1863, p. 1, c. 6

Festival and Tableaux.
The Ladies Aid Society will hold a Festival at
Parmely's Hall,
Thursday Evening, Feb. 26,
For the benefit of our sick and wounded soldiers, on
which occasion the following Tableaux will
be presented.

Part I. (Tableaux Vivants.)

1. Cleopatra's Barge.
2. Cupid's Grove.
A. Cupid asleep.
B. Cupid awake.
3. First blow for Liberty--National Tableaus, representing scene of battle of Lexington, after the known engraving.
4. Otto Von Wittelsbach and the Papal legates.
5. Rape of the Sabines.
6. Minstrel's Curse. (in two scenes.)
7. Una among the Sylvans.

Part II. (Marble Statues.)

1. Death of Hector by Achilles.
2. Priam begs for Hector's corpse,
3. Death of Priam.
4. Allegorical representation of the Ladies' Soldier's Aid Society.

It is hoped that the public generally will feel interested in this effort to supply our sick and wounded soldiers with those necessary comforts of which they stand so much in need, and which can be furnished only by their sympathizing friends at home.
Tickets 25 cents each, (no half price) to be obtained at the Book Stores, and at the Ticket office.

But this one sounds like more fun....

MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL [JACKSON, MS], February 18, 1863, p. 1, c. 7

Asa Proveth Himself a Man of Parts.
No. XIV.

Henceforth call me Smith. I have an indisputable title to the rare and euphonious cognomen of Smith. Smith in Congress--Smith in parliament--Smith in the penitentiary--Smith the parson--Smith the reprobate--Smith the learned--Smith the idiot--General Smith--Smith--are all bound to me by ties that cannot be severed. And when Atropos, with her murderous shears, shall spitefully clip the cobweb strand which keeps in tune my harp of a thousand strings, I want a very tall white stone raised over my grave, bearing the simple inscription--"SMITH."
Let it now be known why I am Smith:
The good ladies of a pretty little town in Mississippi, called _____, have a weakly [sic?] and hebdomadal habit of giving entertainments for the benefit of Gen. Peggs's Lapstone Rangers. They are called tableaux. Klubs says it is table ox, with the "ox" left out. All the good old ladies of the surrounding country engage in it--all the pretty young ones take part. Seven half-grown and half-raised boys get round the piano whenever a young miss goes to play a piece on the programme, and heighten the effect of the music and the attractions of the performer by cracking peanuts and playing with the ribbons in her hair.
Whilst the music is thus entertaining the seven rowdy boys, to the disgust of the audience, a green curtain hides the preparations on the stage for a "life pictur." The music ceases and a tobacco-colored citizen of African descent, standing at the back of the stage--wheels up the curtain. Seventeen candles shed their combined light upon "Belshazzar's feast." Several pretty misses, and a number of young men just old enough to hide from a conscript officer, seem to have been caught in the very act of having a high old time generally, and were ashamed to move. Scene visible for a minute and a half, during which time a tallow candle, sconced directly over Belshazzar's head, has been shedding its greasy superfluity upon his nose. (B. knows it, and screws his face into contortions which would have been creditable to the "ugly man." Tobacco-colored nigger proceeds to let down the curtain. Curtain reaches Belshazzar's head and sticks there. Balt. makes a desperate grab at the obstinate curtain and jerks it down.
Riprorious applause, and up goes curtain again, revealing scene as before. The mystic characters on the wall--"mene, mene," etc.,--seem to have been copied from the hieroglyphics which usually adorn the cover of a pack of Chinese fire-crackers. The resemblance is complete when the aforesaid nigger touches a lighted candle to one end of the sentence, and a bright, fizzing flame runs through every letter. Curtain falls.
Asa and Klubs are seated together in front, delighted spectators. Motherly old lady comes down from the stage and comes up to our "box." Conversation ensues:
LADY--Excuse me. You are an officer?
ASA--Yes'm.
LADY--What rank?
ASA--Major.
LADY--Couldn't you be a Captain for a short time, just to oblige some young ladies?
ASA--Yes'm; was a Captain, once, for a short time, just to oblige myself. Can be it again, if it will oblige the ladies, or benefit the Lapstone Rangers.
LADY--Ah! thank you. Please come up on the stage.
Followed her up, amidst the wondering admiration of the audience. Female of angelic loveliness met me behind the curtain, and begged to know if I would take the part of Captain Smith and have my valuable life spared through the heroism of Pocahontas--adding that the Captain Smith selected for the occasion had been that evening caught by an enrolling officer, and reduced to the ranks in a conscript camp.
Agreed to be Captain Smith, if the fair managers of the tableaux would allow us to rehearse the scene, and let Klubs be the big Injun from whose sanguinary tomahawk the happy Smith is rescued. Proposition accepted and Klub sent for. Was introduced to the sweet and self-sacrificing Pocahontas. Lovely girl; seventeen; hair curled and hanging in ringlets down to her shoulders; complexion alabaster; eyes watery blue; and face, generally, possessing all the expression usually found on a rutabaga turnip. At the first glance supposed her to be a large sized wax doll, fresh from the window of a toy-shop--stuffed with saw-dust from her shoulders down, with a piece of wire coming out at the back by which her eyes might be opened and closed at the will of the operator. Was fascinated with the doll, and could with difficulty cease wondering if it was provided with the wire.
The rehearsal took place. Klubs made a desperate attempt upon my life with a pasteboard broad-ax. My sweet little wax-doll of a Pocahontas rushed in with a double-breasted vim, threw one arm round Asa's devoted neck, and interposed the other between the almost doomed Asa and the wrathy Klubs. Oh! what a thrill of ecstacy [sic] ran through this bosom! Little Italian violinists seemed to be playing their sweetest extravaganzas on every nerve, and each one of the five senses with which a man is supposed to be endowed, went of into separate raptures on its own hook.
Wanted to rehearse again, but Pocahontas naively suggested that I was perfect in my part, and didn't need another rehearsal. Was obliged to forego the pleasure, but the idea of that wire stuck fast to my mind. The seven half grown boys were lulled into silence long enough for the "lecturer" of the evening to inform the audience that a real live officer had been secured to personate the captain, and that the next scene would be "Pocahontas saving the life of Captain Smith."
Got into position for the scene. Bloodthirsty Injun, (Klubs), with look of concentrated hatred, had raised his terrible (pasteboard) tomahawk. Pocahontas, with prettily rounded right army lovingly encircling Captain Smith's (Asa's) neck--had raised her left to ward off the terrible blow. Asa liked the position wonderfully, and just as the curtain was about to rise, told Pocahontas to hold on just as she was till Klubs could take the Memphis APPEAL out of his coat pocket and fold it up so the audience wouldn't see it. Pocahontas held on. Klubs consumed only two minutes of time; but, oh! ye small fry gods! it was an age of bliss. The curtain went up--and the house (figuratively) came down. Whispered to Pocahontas that it was a good thing--audience liked it--mustn't be in a hurry. Rather think that scene was about the longest given that evening. Curtain dropped. Pocahontas withdrew her arms, and Captain Smith simmered down to Asa Hartz.
The war may continue for three thousand years, and Asa may live to enjoy the peace which follows. Jackson may become populated with honest tradesmen. Yea, even stranger things may happen, and blot out from memory's scroll the most indelible record of life's scenes; but even when the resurrection reveille shall call upon me to turn out, will Asa recollect the blissful time when he was Captain Smith. On that great morn he will satisfy himself whether his Pocahontas can open and shut her eyes without the aid of a wire.
Does any young lady with alabaster complexion and pretty curls want to play Pocahontas to the Captain Smith of ASA HARTZ?
Jackson, Miss., Feb. 1863.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[VIrginia Mescher]

Hi,

You may also want to look through the back pages of "Godey's Ladies Book" issues for the 1850's and 1860's. I remember at least one issue that actually carried a very detailed diagram showing how to set up a tableaux vivant. I have copied this and, if need be, can dig it up for your perusal and edification.

I think "Peterson's" and "Arthur's" magazines also discuss this pastime as well.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

In the Jan. 1853 issue of Godey's were a number of tableaux vivants. Also, in the April, 1857, Mar., April, June and July, 1860, March, May, June, July, August, September, October, and December, 1863, January, February, and March, 1864, and teh November and December, 1865, issues of Godey's were tableaux vivants.

[markj]

In the Jan. 1853 issue of Godey's were a number of tableaux vivants. Also, in the April, 1857, Mar., April, June and July, 1860, March, May, June, July, August, September, October, and December, 1863, January, February, and March, 1864, and teh November and December, 1865, issues of Godey's were tableaux vivants.

There you go! I've also copied off large extracts from "Peterson's" and "Arthurs" between 1852-1871 so, if need be, I can plow through those as well. We also have "Graham's Magazine" here at Purdue but I don't think it dealt too much with this subject, if at all.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger