Adelaide Caroline Johanne Brun (known as Ida Brun and later as Ida
(de) Bombelles; 20 September 1792 â€" 23 November 1857) was a Danish
singer, dancer, and classical mime artist in the genre known as
mimoplastic art or "attitude". The literary scholar, Henning Fenger
(1921â€"1985), described Brun as "a shapely, classic blond whose
mimoplastic art captivated Europe".Brun was born in 1792 at
Sophienholm, the family estate in Lyngby. She was the youngest
daughter of Constantin, an affluent merchant, and Friederike Brun, an
author and salon hostess. She was one of five children; her siblings
included Carl Friedrich Balthasar Brun (1784â€"1869), Charlotte Brun
(b. 1788), and Augusta (Guste) Brun (1790). From an early age, she
exhibited the ability to perform as a singer and dancer, thanks to the
encouragement of her mother, who had been impressed by the "attitudes"
(or "living sculptures") developed by Lady Emma Hamilton, whom she had
seen in Naples in 1796. Together with her mother, Ida travelled to
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy from 1801 to 1810. Wherever she went,
she was trained in singing, music, and dance by the best possible
instructors, already performing for Goethe in Jena in 1803 at age 11.
In her performances, she would move delicately into each position,
freezing for a few seconds before gracefully draping herself in the
folds of her tunic so as to represent classical figures such as
Iphigenia, Galatea, Eurydice, Diana, Aurora, and Althaea. Her postures
are recorded in drawings by the German Christoph Heinrich Kniep and in
the poems of Alphonse de Lamartine, as well as in her mother's
correspondence and in her 1824 biography "Idas ästhetische
Entwickelung" (Ida's Aesthetic Development).Her attitude presentations
were admired by contemporary artists such as Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Germaine de Staël, and particularly
by Bertel Thorvaldsen. She became just as famous for her mimed
attitudes as Lady Hamilton herself and was idolized as the very ideal
of art by all the male visitors who attended the salons. She was also
noted for her singing, emulating Angelica Catalani, one of Italy's
foremost opera singers of the period. Other female artists of the day,
such as Henriette Hendel-Schütz in Germany, also presented
"attitudes" along similar lines.
(de) Bombelles; 20 September 1792 â€" 23 November 1857) was a Danish
singer, dancer, and classical mime artist in the genre known as
mimoplastic art or "attitude". The literary scholar, Henning Fenger
(1921â€"1985), described Brun as "a shapely, classic blond whose
mimoplastic art captivated Europe".Brun was born in 1792 at
Sophienholm, the family estate in Lyngby. She was the youngest
daughter of Constantin, an affluent merchant, and Friederike Brun, an
author and salon hostess. She was one of five children; her siblings
included Carl Friedrich Balthasar Brun (1784â€"1869), Charlotte Brun
(b. 1788), and Augusta (Guste) Brun (1790). From an early age, she
exhibited the ability to perform as a singer and dancer, thanks to the
encouragement of her mother, who had been impressed by the "attitudes"
(or "living sculptures") developed by Lady Emma Hamilton, whom she had
seen in Naples in 1796. Together with her mother, Ida travelled to
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy from 1801 to 1810. Wherever she went,
she was trained in singing, music, and dance by the best possible
instructors, already performing for Goethe in Jena in 1803 at age 11.
In her performances, she would move delicately into each position,
freezing for a few seconds before gracefully draping herself in the
folds of her tunic so as to represent classical figures such as
Iphigenia, Galatea, Eurydice, Diana, Aurora, and Althaea. Her postures
are recorded in drawings by the German Christoph Heinrich Kniep and in
the poems of Alphonse de Lamartine, as well as in her mother's
correspondence and in her 1824 biography "Idas ästhetische
Entwickelung" (Ida's Aesthetic Development).Her attitude presentations
were admired by contemporary artists such as Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Germaine de Staël, and particularly
by Bertel Thorvaldsen. She became just as famous for her mimed
attitudes as Lady Hamilton herself and was idolized as the very ideal
of art by all the male visitors who attended the salons. She was also
noted for her singing, emulating Angelica Catalani, one of Italy's
foremost opera singers of the period. Other female artists of the day,
such as Henriette Hendel-Schütz in Germany, also presented
"attitudes" along similar lines.
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