KARSH’S FORMER HOTEL HOME NOW HOUSES HEMINGWAY, PICASSO, SHAW
Stephen Thorne
Canada East, Canada
July 22 2007
OTTAWA (CP) – For almost two decades, Yousef and Estrellita Karsh
called Suite 358 at the Chateau Laurier home.
Now the simple yet elegant, multiroom suite is home to the likes of
Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and George Bernard Shaw.
They are portraits, of course. Karsh portraits.
And on Tuesday no less than Estrellita Karsh herself was there to
reopen the newly refurbished apartment where she and her renowned
photographer husband lived and entertained between portrait sessions
with many of the greatest leaders, celebrities and cognoscenti of
the 20th Century.
"It was a wonderful apartment; we loved being there," Estrellita
Karsh said in an interview. "And, more than anything, we loved being
in the Chateau.
"They all became our family. A hotel, by its nature, is a transient
place. And we were there, permanently. So that made a huge difference
in the relationships with the staff. We were the Ma and Pa Kettle of
the hotel."
She hasn’t stayed in the suite since the couple moved out in 1998, but
she has often visited and says the "spirits" in the suite remain "very,
very good," much as they did the first time the couple walked in.
"It’s just one of those apartments where your heart leaps, you know
it’s ‘it.’ And we did know."
One’s heart might leap at the price: $1,800 a night to sleep with
the ghosts of greatness.
Virtually everybody who was anybody sought immortality through the
lenses of Karsh’s cameras.
Known worldwide as Karsh of Ottawa, his sixth floor studio at what is
now called the Fairmont Chateau Laurier became a waypoint for titans of
the 20th Century. And if they couldn’t come to him, Karsh went to them.
Kennedy, Castro, Hepburn, Einstein, Churchill, Mandela, Schweitzer,
Kruschev. Presidents and prime ministers. Kings and queens.
Scientists and doctors. Authors, composers and artists. The list
seems endless.
"When the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh
of Ottawa," George Perry once wrote in London’s Sunday Times.
Karsh, born in Turkey on Dec. 23, 1908, left his native land to escape
the persecution Armenians endured and came to Canada in 1924 to live
with his photographer uncle in Sherbrooke, Que.
He dreamed of becoming a doctor but didn’t have the money for medical
school. After a brief apprenticeship his uncle sent him off to Boston
to study photography under eminent portraitist John H. Garo.
It was there, in Boston’s museums and galleries, that Karsh refined
his understanding of light and shadow.
He launched his Ottawa studio in 1932, moving to his famous digs at
the Chateau, just a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill, in 1972.
"As a capital city, I knew Ottawa would be a crossroads for statesmen
coming from London and Washington," he once recalled. "I felt there
would be great advantages here and I would be ready for them when
they came."
Karsh loved people, and could hold his own with the best of them.
His sessions were events in themselves and became renowned for their
repartee. An engaging, intelligent personality, he had a gift for
disarming his subjects, for dismantling the walls that people erect
between themselves and the camera – exposing, it seemed at his best
times, their very souls.
"He had a great ability to get right to the heart of the matter and
be able to put it into a photograph," his late brother, Malak Karsh,
a renowned architectural and landscape photographer in his own right,
once said of him.
Karsh was polite and curious. He asked questions, elicited answers,
reflections, profound moods. His sessions became known as "visits"
and his subjects gave of themselves "with love and respect," said
his brother.
"People knew they had a master with them and they appreciated that
opportunity."
His innovative use of light and composition – he worked most often
in shades of grey – helped turn a formidable portraitist into a
brilliant artist.
In September 1992, the Karsh Photographic Studio finally closed its
doors to allow the master more time to pursue books and international
exhibitions, which he did right up until he died.
In 1997, he bid farewell to Ottawa and he and Estrellita, a medical
researcher, packed their bags and headed for Boston. Upon leaving,
he presented a small collection of classic portraits to the Chateau.
Hanging in the lobby is his iconic portrait of Winston Churchill,
along with Albert Einstein, humorist Stephen Leacock, cellist Pablo
Casals, and artists Georgia O’Keeffe and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
In choosing nine original prints for what has become known as The
Karsh Suite, Estrellita and the curator of the Karsh collection kept
in mind that they were destined for "a home, not a museum."
Shaw has always held court above the fireplace, leaning forward,
spectacles in hand, a mischievous look on his face.
A 1969 photograph of the Karshes themselves greets visitors at
the door.
Picasso and the famous picture of Ernest Hemingway – looking
adventurous in a suede and knit Christian Dior sweater that cost his
wife three-months’ of their household funds – hang on two walls in
the living room.
In the dining room, there is skater Barbara Ann Scott and
conservationist Grey Owl, photographed in 1936.
At the entrance to the bedroom, there is ballerina Karen Kain, at the
pinnacle of her glorious career, in 1977. And, in the dressing room,
Estrellita herself, circa 1976, looking angelic in a red-and-gold
kaftan given to her by the king of Morocco.
"It’s a great melange of photographs that somehow or other fit together
in a home and make it welcoming," she said. "Yousef would be delighted
to see this."
The recipient of 17 honorary degrees and the only Canadian named
one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by the
International Who’s Who (he had photographed more than half of them),
Karsh lefts behind a legacy for all the world.
His work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of
Canada, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of
Art, George Eastman House, La Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the
National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery
of Australia and many others.
The National Archives of Canada holds his complete collection,
including negatives, prints and documents. His photographic equipment
was donated to Ottawa’s Museum of Science and Technology.
Karsh died in Boston in July 2002, at the age of 93. He was buried at
Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cemetery – fittingly, beside the ornate gravesite
of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the hotel’s namesake.