#Władysław Teodor “W.T.” Benda

[artdecoandmodernist]

Wladyslaw Teodor Benda, Cover of Life Magazine Theatre Number, October 1922.

[balu8]

W.T. Benda

[sassafrasmoonshine]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda, illustrator (Polish, 1873-1948) • Collier's magazine • Front and back covers • August, 1925

[tomoleary]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda (1873-1948)

[beyondthespheres]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda (15 January 1873 – 30 November 1948) was a Polish painter, illustrator, and designer.

[arinewman7]

Illustration by W.T. Benda

Life Magazine Cover, November 1922

[radimus-co-uk]

Władysław Teodor Benda

[jadeseadragon]

Władysław Teodor “W.T.” Benda (Polish/American, 1873 - 1948)  [source]

[nature-and-culture]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda (15 January 1873 – 30 November 1948) was a Polish painter, illustrator, and designer.

[arsarteetlabore]

Wladyslaw Theodore Benda 1873-1948 

[mote-historie]

Władysław T. Benda. See, Jack, he said, his manner wild and delirious. Published in: The Nightmare Room, by A. Conan Doyle, Hearst's international, August, 1922.

[artdecoandmodernist]

Władysław Teodor Benda, Charcoal, A Benda Princess, n.d.

[alsa49]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda, pittore, illustratore e designer polacco (1873 – 1948)

[thinkingimages]

Woman in Mask by Arnold Genthe, 1931

Polish Artist Władysław T. Benda’s Living Masks:

Artist, illustrator and costume designer Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda (15 January 1873 – 30 November 1948) was born in Poznan, Poland on January 15, 1873. He died in his adopted home of New York City on November 30, 1948. In 1914, three years after becoming a US citizen, Benda turned his hand to designing and making papier-mâché face masks. He made his first mask from wrapping paper for a friend’s masquerade ball. He enjoyed the work so set about making more masks. At first he featured them in his own studio pantings and graphic art, before he was hired to make them for miracle plays in New York City at venues like the New York Coffee House. Benda’s masks featured in stage productions on Broadway and London’s West End for works by such writers as Eugene O’Neill and Noël Coward, and for the movie The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), which was originally published as a twelve part story in Collier’s magazine from May 7, 1932 through July 23, 1932.

Benda was synonymous with masks. In the 1930s he authored the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on masks. He also wrote the book Masks (1944), a study of his own designs and unique construction techniques.

In 1931, photographer Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) took this photograph among many with performers wearing Benda’s masks.

[thecolorblockcurator]

Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda

[delicatuscii-wasbella102]

By  Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda