But I believe Tonnesen produced more than 2000 photos during her long career, and many of those appeared as published prints and advertisements between about 1898 and 1930. Identifying them can be tricky, because she was seldom credited by the publishers. However, by referencing the hundreds of confirmed photos now available to us, as well as the relatively few signed and attributed published prints, we can recognize Tonnesen’s unidentified works, not only by matching them with these known photos, but through her props, models and costumes. As a result, I’ve been able to add scores of new finds to my collection this year. This year’s additions range from prints of beautiful flappers and Victorian mothers, children and pets to an original painting of Tonnesen’s own mother!

There are more to come, but, to start the new year, the slideshow at right shows eight new finds from my collection. The information below describes how I determined they originated as photos by Tonnesen.
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Portraits of beautiful women, glamorous and slightly risque, were hot sellers in the calendar art market of the 1920’s. Prominent among the artists whose work contributed to the craze were Beatrice Tonnesen and R. Atkinson Fox. They sometimes collaborated, as we have seen with Fox’s “Glory of Youth,” painted from a photo by Tonnesen. (See the earlier post on this blog.)

Recently, I found a 1922 Richards-Wilcox Mfg. Co. calendar featuring a black and white photo print of a beautiful young woman, titled “Ellen” on the back of the card. Ellen reminded me of someone else: The lovely “Esmeralda”, a 1926 calendar print from a painting signed “DeForest,” a pseudonym used by Fox. Compare Ellen and Esmeralda, both shown in the image at right.

The Richards-Wilcox Company made door hangers, advertised on monthly calendar cards mailed to their mostly male clientele. Each card featured an attractive woman, and many of the titles, captions and write-ups would be considered sexist by today’s standards . The series dates back at least as far as 1908 and ran at least through the early 1920’s. I have been collecting these cards because they feature a number of Tonnesen models, and a few of the images can be positively identified as Tonnesen’s work.
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