Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee

Item Information

Title:
Arnold Toynbee
Description:
I entered the impressive portals of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in 1955, with a sense of occasion and not a little apprehension. For I was to photograph there the Institute's renowned Director of Studies and perhaps the most remarkable, or at least the most controversial, historian of modern times. But I found in Professor Arnold Toynbee not the chilly scholar of civilizations, as I had expected, but a laughing philosopher. ~ He greeted me at first with urbane courtesy as if I were the ambassador of some great power or a fellow student of the ages. Of course, if I wished it, the portrait must be made in some other office, for his, as I diffidently intimated, was too small, and, as one would expect, cluttered with shelves, books, and furniture. Accordingly he asked his secretary to show me over the whole building so I could find a suitable background. Alas, as so often is the case in the great institutions of learning, the rooms, with their masses of volumes and papers, the tools of scholarship, were all occupied. In the end I selected a completely empty and impersonal chamber which, if it did not add to the Professor's personality, could not detract from it. When he entered and the sitting began, I realized that I need not have worried about background and décor. Toynbee's personality is so effervescent and compelling that it stands out against and quite obliterates the background. ~ He talked with extraordinary animation about the affairs of mankind, ancient and modern. But the historian who has charted the rise and fall of civilizations, the rhythmical record of aeons, preferred, in talking, to amuse me with a series of light jests, almost as if I were the subject and he the portraitist. His mind moved with lightning speed and so did his mobile features. Too fast, in fact. For whenever he launched on some anecdote, the humour of it touched him prematurely and he would burst into laughter long before the point was reached. He was after all, I reflected, a historian, not an actor. ~ Yet people always tell me, on seeing this photograph, that this carefree person cannot be the solemn author of that profound and shattering work A Study of History. Actually, the portrait seems to me extremely accurate. It shows a man who knows the record of human life as few men know it and, with all its faults, crimes and tragedies, finds it hopeful, good... and laughable (Karsh, 1959).
Photographer:
Karsh, Yousuf, 1908-2002
Date:
1955
Format:
Photographs
Genre:
Gelatin silver prints
Portrait photographs
Location:
Boston Public Library
Arts Department
Collection (local):
Literary Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
Subjects:
Historians
Authors
Philosophers
Toynbee, Arnold, 1889-1975
Places:
England > London
Extent:
1 photograph : gelatin silver print ; sheet 36 x 29 cm (11 x 14 format)
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/pr76nh624
Terms of Use:
Copyright (c) Estate of Yousuf Karsh
All rights reserved.
Notes:
Title from item.
Handwritten on item back: B-20
Notes (acquisition):
Gift; Estrellita Karsh in honor of Peter R.V. Brown, former chair of the Associates of the Boston Public Library; 2024
Notes (date):
Date from "Portraits of Greatness."
Notes (citation):
Karsh, Yousuf. "Portraits of Greatness." T. Nelson and Sons, [1959], New York, London.
Accession #:
24_09_000009