Costume Design. Heinrich the Birdcatcher with a Sword 1933

Curator: Oh, this strikes me as something straight out of a fairy tale, albeit one with a very serious-looking protagonist. It feels archaic, a bit menacing even, with all that armor and the weighty sword. Editor: Well, let's contextualize what we're seeing. This is a costume design by Alexander Khvostenko-Khvostov, created in 1933, titled "Heinrich the Birdcatcher with a Sword." The artist utilized gouache in this figural portrait. Curator: Birdcatcher? Is that some medieval euphemism, or did emperors really chase after finches? The title creates a curious tension with the almost comical stoicism of the figure! His eyes seem sad and distant. Editor: "Birdcatcher" actually refers to Henry I, the King of Germany in the early 10th century. That era, the interwar years of the 20th century, saw an interest in figures and iconography which spoke of power, origins and identity, within Europe. Khvostenko-Khvostov had ties to avant-garde artistic movements, but that aesthetic is absent here. We see a historic, powerful subject being engaged, but using materials that would feel at home on a stage set, not in the halls of power. Curator: Absolutely. It has an operatic feel to it, theatrical but definitely not intimate. I love the somewhat haphazard detail of the armor versus the simple rendering of the cape. What story did this King embody for Khvostenko-Khvostov and his audience, I wonder? Editor: Exactly, the cape with its almost hasty application of color highlights a sense of stagecraft, as do the details in the shield. In the historical context of the 1930s, especially with rising authoritarian regimes across Europe, the costume design could be read as a meditation on power and its representation. The artistic license taken in representing a historical figure can reveal much about the political and social landscape of the time. Curator: So much about this piece feels rooted in the tensions of its time, yet filtered through the lens of this historical narrative. He’s there to be scrutinized, but is beyond us. What can we really glean, besides speculation? That distance—I find it so alluring. Editor: All art involves a leap into speculation. What Khvostenko-Khvostov offers, finally, is an opening, an incomplete story that resonates as much with history as with the fraught moment in which it was rendered. A little distance might be just what we need to see it all a bit more clearly.