[Historical Americana] [Evolution or Degeneration] Bachmann, Max. (1862–1921). "Isn't That Awful" - 1897 Terracotta Sculpture for LIFE Magazine. Unique hand sculpted terracotta sculpture of two monkeys, measuring 16 x 14 x 13 inches, titled along the front edge of the base "Isn't That Awful," incised on the rear base "Copyright by Mitchell & Miller Publishers of LIFE 1897," and signed on the side of the base "Max Bachmann Sclpt." The monkeys are sitting on books and the one on the left, atop Darwin's "Descent of Man," is reading Max Nordau's "Degeneration." In very good condition, with chips to one book corner and to the ear of the monkey on the right. Apparently accomplished and intended for reproduction in an 1897 issue of LIFE magazine, founded in 1883 and at the time, the foremost American humor magazine of the period.


Nordau's "Degeneration" (Entartung, 1892), is an attack on so-called degenerate art, though he condemns the rising Anti-Semitism of the late 19th Century as a product of degeneration and his viewpoints are more aligned with a sort of 18th-century belief in Reason, Progress, and more traditional, classical rules governing art and literature. His book deals with numerous case studies of various artists, writers and thinkers (Wilde, Ibsen, Wagner and Nietzsche to name but a few) but its basic premise is that society and human beings themselves are degenerating, and this degeneration is both reflected in and influenced by art. The present monkeys, literally propped up by Darwin's more hopeful 1872 "The Descent of Man," seem amused on behalf of the human race, which despite every apparent advantage of evolution, are now apparently sliding backwards...to their lowly station.


"Max Bachmann was born in Brunswick, Germany, in 1862, emigrated with his family to New England, and was living in New York by the mid-1890s, the city he would call home for the rest of his life. Somewhere along the line, he received training in the sculpting arts. Though some of his pieces had been displayed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, he was little known in 1896 when he began contributing political cartoon sculptures to Leslie’s Weekly Illustrated, which printed them large scale on the front page. His first sculpture, depicting New York Republican boss Thomas Platt, appeared on the cover of the June 18, 1896, issue. Thereafter followed twenty-three cartoon statues, one every week...The New York Mail and Express wrote: “Leslie’s Weekly’s unique and telling statuary groups on its first page have proved a novel and valuable contribution to modern campaigning.” The New York Tribune said, “Perhaps the most novel feature of this year’s caricature has been its expression in sculpture… While many of [Bachmann’s sculptural] arguments have been self-evident, they have doubtless had a considerable influence by their effect of sculptured permanence; as if, after each week’s puzzling argument in the daily papers, some clear voice rose above the clatter and said in a downright way: “But the fact remains!” ...After his stint with Leslie’s Weekly, Bachmann gained a reputation as an architectural sculptor. In 1899 Joseph Pulitzer commissioned him to design allegorical figures representing the seven continents for the Pulitzer building on Park Row. His busts of an American Indian (1902) and of Lincoln (1905) are still widely celebrated."(Richard Samuel West, "Max Bachmann, Political Cartoonist in Clay – 1896," on "Yesterday's Papers" blog [January 26, 2013])