Hugo Riesenfeld
Black chalk on writing paper
28 × 21,7 cm
signed and dated (b. r.): Arnold Schoenberg
23. V. 1935
Catalogue raisonné 129

Belmont Music Publishers, Los Angeles
courtesy Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien

Arnold Schönberg: Ten Caricatures

Ten caricatures of people, most of them I met only in Hollywood. Some of them are more cruely exposed than I would have liked. I only disliked a few of these people. I cannot even tell anymore, whom some of the caricatures are meant to depict. Obviously these persons have totally disappeared from my life. Curiously, some of these are among the best I’ve done in terms of drawing technique as well as conception, as for example no. 7 and 8. About some of them I can only make a guess. I am certain about: No. 1: Richard Buhlig; No. 2: Hugo Riesenfeld; No. 3: Bruno U[s]sher; No. 4: Maurice Zam; No. 6: Richard Lert; – No. 5 is (probably) Julia Howell (U. S. C.); No. 9 is (probably) Mrs. Vertchamp, wife of the first violinist of a quartet which performed my IInd Str. Qu.; No. 10 is (perhaps) Mrs. Zam, overdramatic in every situation.

Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien (T 47.02)
Dated: August 1940.

1 Richard Buhlig (1880 – 1952); pianist, interpreter of Schönberg’s works since 1912 ( Three Piano Pieces, op. 11).

2 Hugo Riesenfeld (1879 – 1939); film composer; acquaintance of Schönberg since around 1898.

3 Bruno David Ussher; music publisher and writer.

4 Maurice Zam; pianist, Director of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts. Zam coined the expression “Schönberg is the Einstein of music.” Following his proposal, in 1936 Schönberg was appointed Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

5 Richard Lert (1885 – 1980); conductor.

6 Julia Howell; in 1935 Schönberg’s student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

7 Albert Vertchamp; Schönberg played tennis with him in Hollywood at the end of 1934.

8 IInd String Quartet, op. 10.