‘My intention is just to entertain you a little’. This is what stage designer and theatre reformer Edward Gordon Craig wrote to Marguerite Caetani in an undated letter. Between 1917 and 1925, Craig wrote her dozens of letters, first from Rome, where he lived, and later from Rapallo. For him, the contact with this rich and discerning American-born princess seemed to open up all kinds of possibilities. For her, the association with a well-known avant-garde artist like Craig meant an opportunity to explore her potential as artistic go-between and confidante of artists. Edward Gordon Craig is known to theatre historians as an artist who revolutionized the twentieth-century stage through his work as an actor, director and scenic designer. He also wrote a number of highly influential theoretical works (The art of the theatre, 1905, and On the art of the theatre, 1911) and edited one of the first international theatre magazines, The Mask (1908-1929). In the years of his contact with Marguerite Caetani he launched a second magazine, «The Marionette» (1918-1919) and was very successful in selling his highly stylized woodcuts (‘black figures’) to an international clientele of rich collectors. But prolific and powerful as his output was, he designed very little that was actually staged. Most of the 43 letters from Craig to Marguerite Caetani that have survived are – as Craig promised – undeniably entertaining. Craig was a great letter writer, and his letters to Caetani are long, detailed, intimate and often very funny. The main point I would like to make here is that I do not believe that in these letters Craig was just trying to entertain his correspondent. He very clearly had other ends in view. In the letters, Craig repeatedly and deliberately positioned himself in the role of protégé, and tried to position Marguerite in the corresponding role of patron. He put his wishes across very frankly, and although Marguerites responses are lost, it is clear that she was willing to agree to some of his demands – but only up to a point. How did their patronage relationship develop between 1917 and 1925? And also: what sort of demands did Craig actually make? What did he ask of her, and why? I will examine Craig’s letters with these questions in mind.

Onderwerpen: historische context geven aan kunstenaars theaterwereld 1900-2000 weldoeners

Auteur: prof. dr. Helleke van den Braber