Woolfian Boundaries - Clemson University

BORDERLINE PERSONALITIES: WOOLF REVIEWS KAPP
by Ben Harvey
In 1969 the University of Birmingham’s art museum purchased over 240 drawings by
the caricaturist Edmond X. Kapp. At that time, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts probably
didn’t realize that by collecting Kapp it was also forging a connection with Virginia
Woolf, who, at the very end of her essay “Pictures and Portraits,” had once expressed her
startling desire to emulate, perhaps even impersonate, Kapp. “Oh to be silent! Oh to be a
painter! Oh (in short) to be Mr. Kapp!” (E3 166).
Figure 1: Kapp’s Personalities cover and list of subjects
Published in the book review section of the Athenaeum on 9 January 1920, “Pictures
and Portraits” is ostensibly a review of Kapp’s Personalities: Twenty-Four Drawings (see Figure
1). Focusing on six of these personalities, Woolf distinguishes between those subjects
of whom she has personal knowledge and those she does not, generally preferring the latter
category. Aside from this theme of personal acquaintance, her descriptions are notable
largely for their concision and brilliance. In particular, she impresses and amuses us by
her ability to tease apt zoological affi nities out of Kapp’s drawings. While George Bernard
Shaw’s “fi ngers are contorted into stamping hooves,” the Duke of Devonshire:
for all the world resembles a seal sleek from the sea, his mouth pursed to a button
signifying a desire for mackerel. But the mackerel he is off ered is not fresh, and, tossing
himself wearily backwards, he fl ops with a yawn into the depths. (165-66)
As for “‘Th e Politician’ (Charles Masterman),” we read that he
has the long body cut into segments and the round face marked with alarming