Iris Tree (27 January 1897 – 13 April 1968) was an English poet, actress and artists' model,
described as a
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
, an
eccentric
Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to:
* Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal"
Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics
* Off-center, in geometry
* Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...
, a
wit and an adventurer.
Biography
Tree's parents were actors Sir
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progra ...
and
Helen Maud, Lady Tree. Her sisters were actresses
Felicity and
Viola Tree
Viola Tree (17 July 1884 – 15 November 1938) was an English actress, singer, playwright and author. Daughter of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree, she made many of her early appearances with his company at His Majesty's Theatre. Later she appe ...
. An aunt was author
Constance Beerbohm
Constance Mary Beerbohm (1856–8 January 1939), was the oldest daughter of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1811–92), , and her uncles were explorer and author
Julius Beerbohm and
caricaturist
A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures.
List of caricaturists
* Abed Abdi (born 1942)
* Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003)
* Alex Gard (1900–1948)
* Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977)
* Alfred Grévin (1827–1892)
* Alf ...
and
parodist
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturday ...
.
[
Iris Tree was sought after, as a young woman, as an artists' model, being painted by ]Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...
, simultaneously by Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group.
His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...
, Vanessa Bell
Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen).
Early life and education
Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...
and Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...
, and sculpted by Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911.
He often produc ...
, showing her bobbed hair (she was said to have cut off the rest and left it on a train) that, along with other behavior, caused much scandal. The Epstein sculpture is currently displayed at the Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
Britain. She was often photographed by Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...
, was friends with Nancy Cunard
Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the ...
for a time, and acted alongside Diana Cooper in the mid-1920s.
She studied at the Slade School of Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
. She contributed verse to the 1917 Sitwell anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
''Wheels''; her published collections were ''Poems'' (1919), ''The Traveller and other Poems'' (1927), and ''The Marsh Picnic'' (1966).
She married twice. Her first marriage was to Curtis Moffat Edwin Curtis Moffat (October 11, 1887 – 1949) was a London-based American abstract photographer, painter and modernist interior designer.
Moffat studied painting in New York and in Paris before exhibiting his work in New York during World War ...
, a New York artist; Ivan Moffat
Ivan Romilly Moffat (18 February 1918 – 4 July 2002) was a British screenwriter, film producer and socialite who, with Fred Guiol, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting Edna Ferber's eponymous novel into the ...
, the screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
, was their son. She came to America to act in Karl Vollmöller
Karl Gustav Vollmöller (or Vollmoeller; 7 May 1878 – 18 October 1948) was a German philologist, archaeologist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and aircraft designer. He is most famous for the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime '' The Mira ...
's play ''The Miracle'' in 1925, and there met her second husband, the actor and ex-officer of the Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n cavalry, Count Friedrich von Ledebur
Friedrich Anton Maria Hubertus Bonifacius Graf von Ledebur-Wicheln ( – ) was an Austrian actor who was known for ''Moby Dick'' (1956), ''Alexander the Great'' (1955) and ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' (1972).
Early life
Ledebur was born in Nisko, ...
. The two roamed around California, gypsy style, with their son, then moved back to Europe where they were involved in the Chekhov Theatre Studio. They both appeared (after their divorce) in the 1956 film version of ''Moby Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whit ...
''. She also appeared as a poet, essentially as herself, in Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...
's ''La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcell ...
'' (1960).
See also
* Beerbohm family The Beerbohm family are the descendants of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (9 April 1810 – 30 August 1892), the son of Ernest Henery Beerbohm (12 May 1763 – 22 May 1838) and Henrietta Radke (1767–1855), and of Dutch, Lithuanian and German origin, ...
References
Further reading
* ''The Rainbow Picnic: A Portrait of Iris Tree'' (1974) Daphne Fielding
The Hon. Daphne Winifred Louise Fielding (''née'' Vivian, formerly Thynne; 11 July 1904 – 5 December 1997) was a British author in the 20th century.
Early life
Daphne Vivian was born on 11 July 1904 in Westminster, London, the elder chil ...
. London: Eyre Methuen
External links
*
Tree archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection
University of Bristol
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tree, Iris
1897 births
1968 deaths
Beerbohm family
English artists' models
English women poets
English people of Lithuanian descent
English people of German descent
20th-century English poets
20th-century English women writers