Adah Isaacs Menken as Mazeppa by Henry Mullins - 1864 Victoria and Albert Museum Adah Isaacs Menken as Mazeppa by Henry Mullins - 1864 Victoria and Albert Museum

Adah Isaacs Menken as Mazeppa

photography •
  • Henry Mullins - 1854 - 1921 Henry Mullins 1864

In previous articles I have studied the question of Who am I?, looking into Virginia Oldoini, amongst others. Does a portrait reveal our identity or just the way we think of ourselves? Today I'm trying to expand this search with adding a woman who kept her real name a closely guarded secret. She became known as Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868). My distinct feeling when reading about her is that she herself also did not exactly know who or what she was. She wanted to be known for her writing, but became the highest earning actress of her time.

During her life she created so many stories about her origins that even today we cannot be 100% certain of the truth. She first published her real name as Marie Rachel Adelaide de Vere Spenser in Bordeaux, France. She also stated Dolores Adios Los Fiertes was her real name. Modern research has shown she perhaps was to born Ada C. McCord, in Memphis, Tennessee, but other origins and names still remain possible.

Her short life was all about Who am I? She was briefly married in February 1855 to G. W. Kneass, a musician. Only a year later she married the man whose name she took: Alexander Isaac Menken. He followed Reform Judaism and Adah created her Jewish roots from his heritage, studying Judaism. By this time she started working as an actress in New York and San Francisco. Also she published some of her poems, but these were not well received. As an actress she became a celebrity, while really wanting to be a writer. 

She started to wear her hair in a wavy, short, masculine style, cultivating a bohemian and androgynous look. She slowly created her own image using modern media like photography. 

In 1859 she married John C. Sheenan, her third marriage. It was quickly discovered that she was not yet legally divorced from Menken and was accused of bigamy. Her divorce from Menken finally came through but her marriage to Sheenan also quickly failed. Within a year they were divorced. For a while she devoted herself to writing poems. Although she published some of them, they weren't a huge success. After several other men in her life she settled for the role that made her famous. A breeches role (that of a man) in the melodrama Mazeppa. At the climax of the piece her character was stripped, tied to a horse, and led offstage. At first a dummy was used to perform this stunt, but she insisted on doing it herself. She dressed up in very nude tights with a real horse onstage, appearing to be naked and thus causing a sensation. 
 
After marrying for a fourth and a fifth time she went to London and Paris. Adah caused much furor and had several shocking affairs, including one with Alexander Dumas (who was twice her age). She then became ill and couldn't work anymore. Falling into poverty very quickly she wrote to a friend: "I am lost to art and life. Yet, when all is said and done, have I not at my age tasted more of life than most women who live to be a hundred? It is fair, then, that I should go where old people go." She died in Paris and was buried at the Cimetière Montparnasse. To my mind, her portraits, in the end, didn't truly reveal her identity. 
 - Erik
 
If you would like to recall mentioned Virginia Oldoini's photos, see our article "Virginia Oldoini, The Star Of Early Photography" on our online magazine DailyArtDaily.