The Grand Piano of Ignacy Jan Paderewski in Cartoons

Abstract

This article conducts a contextual analysis of iconographic sources—cartoons and caricatures— the protagonist of which is the famous pianist, composer, and politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941) and his accompanying attribute—a grand piano. Illustrations used for this research come from magazines of different social scope, content, and artistic levels, as well as political colour; the majority of these are English, German, and Polish-language newspapers from 1893 to 1939. Organising these sources and confronting their message with the information found in the daily press of the time makes it possible to identify and describe the various functions that Paderewski’s instrument played in satirical discourse and, thus in the consciousness of the recipient of mass culture. The presence of a grand piano makes it possible, for example, to instantly recognise Paderewski as a pianist; it explains the artist’s significant income (an instrument as a ‘machine’ to multiply wealth) and gives space to reproduce the myth about his supernatural pianistic abilities (in the extreme imaginations of cartoonists, virtuosity distanced Paderewski from what was earthly). Finally, his grand piano symbolised power—both in an artistic sense (absolute power over the concert audience) and political sense (control over opponents in disputes taking place in Poland and the international arena).