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Histories of hat styles
Yes, you are right (except the typo) the painting is from 1787. I believe that correction strengthens my thesis since this was Goethe's period of initial success following "The Sorrows of Young Werner" and the painting might therefore have an even more dynamic impact. The influence of Goethe's...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #10
- Forum: Hats
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BARBISIO Brothers
Wow, I LOVE this hat! If I ever get a bespoke made, maybe I will ask for a clone. Beautiful!- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #305
- Forum: Hats
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Histories of hat styles
I absolutely agree about Tennyson. I searched for evidence of him, or of Wilde, or even of Whitman (who I'm now sure is quite improbable) as the namesake, but not finding anything developed this more generic theory. The Goethe painting was created in the 1820s (I don't remember exactly when)...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #7
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
Thank you for the tip on the Velour. It's interesting how much that hat resembles the Indiana Jones Poet. I don't have any idea what impact men's fashion from the German-speaking world had on England in the 1890s. Clearly France was a major influence on the Aesthetic Movement.- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #519
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
Yes, it was apparently not unique for him to wear it as it was popular among aristocrats on the Grand Tour. What was unique was to allow himself to be shown in it in a painting. The classical period, which ends with Goethe, mostly painted literary figures in wigs.- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #518
- Forum: Hats
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Histories of hat styles
I should specify: this is a story about fin-de-siecle English literary society, since it is sometime in the 1890s (I don't exactly when) that Herbert Johnson introduces and markets "the Poet" hat. The question is, why did they call it that? But not even in England is this hat universal for...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #4
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
I couldn't find evidence to support my original theory of the poet hat as a theatrical prop, but I did come to other conclusions about the history of this hat. I created a whole new thread called "Histories of hat styles" if anyone is interested (and if the administrators don't send my comments...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #514
- Forum: Hats
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Histories of hat styles
I know there are many threads here that discuss the origins of specific hat makers, but I’d like to do something a bit different with this thread. If this is not a worthwhile contribution than I trust the administrators to catalogue this post in an appropriate thread. I do feel a thread...- Nathaniel Finley
- Thread
- Replies: 40
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
I also thought maybe I could find more information about the original "Poet" by searching online discussions of the 4th Doctor's hat, but alas I only found the same superficial type of bla-bla-bla about it that one finds about the Indy version. Nothing of enough historical substance to help...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #513
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
Got a link by chance, RJR? I've never been on COW.- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #512
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
Found it! I knew there was a piece of art showing a romantic poet in a big hat. It's Goethe! If there is one poet - and one image - which could have, for an entire century, associated poets with wide-brimmed, high-crowned fedoras, this is it. I reckon "the poet" is named for Goethe, and the hat...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #507
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
According to Wikipedia, HJ didn't open until 1889, which is seven years after the photos of Wilde by Sarony, so if Wilde did wear an HJ lid it wasn't the one in the images above. Not to say he didn't wear an HJ, but that hat wasn't one of them, meaning that the style was extant prior to HJ's...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #502
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
I also see an alternative theory: In 1882, portrait photographer Napolean Sarony took a series of photos of Oscar Wilde in a cape and "poet" hat (Bob posted one of those images above). Sarony was known for taking shots of actors in costume. So what if this hat was a costume piece, one that was...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #500
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
Are we certain that Herbert Johnson first named this style "The Poet"? To me, their website is unclear on that matter. It says only, "The 'Poet' had been made by Herbert Johnson since the 1890's..." but that doesn't specify that they invented the style or that they named it. If they did, and it...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #499
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
And I Whitman's poems! ;) Here's a good article on the relationship between Whitman and Wilde. It also, coincidentally, includes the following description of the above-cited title page of LEAVES OF GRASS: 'This frontispiece is now considered, the scholars Ed Folsom and Charles M. Price write...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #497
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
I adore Oscar Wilde, but I definitely lean towards a Walt Whitman explanation myself. This is not just because Whitman is my poetic idol, either - not only was the above-cited image of America's first poet used in the first edition of LEAVES OF GRASS (published in 1855, when Wilde was only 1...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #495
- Forum: Hats
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My Blue Heaven
By the next century, here's a shot of Langston Hughes in one as well. Hard to get much more ROTLA than this! Or Ezra Pound...- Nathaniel Finley
- Post #489
- Forum: Hats
