The life of Marx featured on Mastermind on 4th September. A musician with a beard successfully answered ten questions the last of which was about Marx shaving his beard off. Why he did so remains unresolved and there are no extant photos of the shaven Marx
Mystery of Marx Algiers beard shave photographs remains
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said it believes it has resolved the long running mystery about why Karl Marx had his beard shaved off while in Algiers in April 1882 and whether a photograph of him without the beard actually exists.
While there is no doubt that Marx did visit an Algerian barber to have his beard shaved and hair trimmed the reason for this has remained obscure.
While in letters to Engels from Algiers in April 1882 Marx describes the weather as very changeable with rain and high winds he notes in a letter to Engels on Friday 28th April 1882:
‘Apropos; because of the sun I have done away with my prophet’s beard and my crowning glory (but in deference to my daughters) had myself photographed before offering up my hair on the altar of an Algerian barber. I shall receive the photographs next Sunday (30th April). Specimina will be sent to you from Marseilles.
The photograph was taken by E Dutretre on 28th April 1882 and is in the archive of the International Institute of Social History. It is thought to be the last one to be taken of Marx while alive.
Another purporting to show Marx clean shaven is a fake, probably a photomontage of what he might have looked like.
Intriguingly Marx wrote to Laura Lafargue from Monte Carlo on 6th May 1882 stating ‘I enclose one photo for you another for Fred; no art can make the man look worse
This suggests that a photo of the clean shaven Marx may exist but is not extant.
Marcello Musto who is at York University Toronto tweeted on 28th November
He wrote to Engels: “I have done away with my prophet’s beard and my crowning glory but had myself photographed before offering up my hair on the altar of an Algerian barber”.
In 1882, when he visited Algiers, Marx surprisingly shaved his beard.
Musto has written an excellent study of Marx’s last years but the precise reason for his Algiers beard trimming remains an open historical question.
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