Beards of Note: Louis Lang

I recently read about a new beard style that is taking the world of facial hair by storm: The Monkey Tail, A Beard. So I got to thinking, if this beard had existed in the 19th century, how many artists would have adopted the style?

Simulated 19th Century Monkey Tail beard, as modeled by the author of this blog post.

Louis Lang, ca. 1860. Miscellaneous photographs collection. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Perhaps American painter Louis Lang (1814-1893) would have. After his death in 1893, The New York Times labeled Lang an eccentric in an article about his will. I can certainly picture him sporting The Monkey Tail—can you?

See several of Lang’s paintings on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.

Jennifer Snyder works with oral history interviews at the Archives American Art. When not sending interviews out for digitization, she is writing about extraordinary examples of facial hair for this blog.

Comments

[afrika]

This is a nice one...Lang with that monkey tail, no way!!

nica post!The Monkey Tail, A Beard. Maybe this is hard for me to make it! U are so great!

Wow. That's the art of our human beards. Love it! so great to see that.

[Hugo]

The paintings are old. It's amazing they are well preserved.

Hehe this is awesome, I have never seen beard like this one, but I like so much that I have to try it.

I cant grow any facial hair!

"nica post!The Monkey Tail, A Beard. Maybe this is hard for me to make it! U are so great!"

Really this post is dedicated to the art of our human beards. Love it! so great to see that.

His a hairy man. What kind of mustache is that? Is so unique. And his hair is very unique also.