Henrik Weber, Hungarian
Composer Mihaly Mosonyi, Whose Beard Has Given His Wife Fleas, 1840
Oil on canvas
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MASTERPIECE #803
Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here (archived, if necessary), here, here (Google translated, if necessary), and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// The composer Mosonyi disclosed
that when painted by Weber he dozed.
He looks calm and serene
in this nonchalant scene.
Both composer and wife seem composed.
/// He had rivals he ought to have feared.
Jealous men who made claims he was weird.
Tried to ruin his life.
Said his beautiful wife
had been hired to serve as his “beard.”
/// But, the truth was, despite what they said,
Mihály and his spouse shared a bed.
They’re a hot carnal match,
though, at times, she would scratch
at a rash from his whiskers, bright red.
/// Pay no heed to some loud-mouth contrarian
who would brand him a bearded barbarian.
His beard’s trimmed, brushed and clean,
of the type which is seen
on the chins of men strong and Hungarian.
/// From the time that he first undertook
to attract her she never forsook
her hirsute composer
‘cause Mosonyi knows her.
She adores his “Neanderthal look.”
/// You’d be wrong if you happened to think
that he plied her with liquor to drink.
To get drunk she won’t sink,
but confides with a wink
that Mihály’s beard tickles her pink.
/// We can see that her beauty is rare,
but if he should shave off facial hair,
there’s a chance, to be fair,
people might stop and stare.
She might have a good-looking man there.
/// But she thinks that his full beard’s erotic,
and his wooing was, no doubt, melodic.
She would never have kissed
the clean-shaven Franz Liszt;
her Hungarian makes her rhapsodic.
/// His left hand lightly touches her arm,
while his right’s far off doing no harm.
She does not seem perturbed,
but if she were disturbed,
I would think she would show some alarm.
/// Husbands will touch wives some time or other.
(That’s the way most transition to “mother.”)
But he ought not be groping
now, cautiously coping
with the fact that the painter’s her brother.