"I am writing you a note, dear TonTon, from the land of fairy tales. It's so beautiful and unexpected that you can't imagine yourself without seeing it. Our hearts are full of happiness and our souls blend and yet… I am like a king in exile.
Brâncuși
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On his way to New York, 50-year old Brâncuși wrote to 20-year old Marthe Lebherz with passion. It’s September 1926 and they had been madly in love for a year now. Such mad love that in one letter Brâncuși doesn’t remember her last name, but hey - why should names stand in the way of love? He called her TonTon, from Marthon. Constantin, pardon my French again, became TanTan.
“I think about you all the time and your worries hurt me: I felt them before you told me. Be happy TonTon. Work and sing and write to me a lot. I bought American glasses."
Marthe had slowly become a witness to all aspects of Brâncuși’s life: trips to the countryside, eviction notices and cheerful evenings with the likes of Marcel Duchamp – whose wife refers to Marthe as Maurice – a nickname reserved only for the most special within Brâncuși’s inner circle.
Still, their love was a silent affair. Brâncuși, ever private, shared nothing beyond his closest friends. Marthe feared her parents’ opinion and hid everything. A classic.
"In the meantime, don't leave the sky. Work and sing and tell me beautiful things, it does me so much good, sing to me TonTon darling, sing TonTon, sing to me. You are very close to me TonTon.
I hear your breathing and I feel your heart beating, I embrace you and I send you a bunch of kisses."
Brâncuși planned to turn their letters into a book. The Kiss, fittingly, would be on the cover. Most letters include sketches of the sculpture’s earlier version, alongside love declarations, collages made out of cut-out images of a crocodile and a lizard, and made-up verses.
Marthe sent back tokens of her feelings: curls of her blonde hair attached in the envelopes. But when she stopped, a misunderstanding arose.
"Tell me, dear TonTon, why didn't you attach the last two letters to me with your treasure which you know how much I adore. It hurt a little. Say dear TonTon, open your heart wide, tell me...
TonTon, TonTon, TonTon, TonTon Why are you worried?"
Brâncuși in love is quite a scene. Playful, naïve, anxious. The love depicted in the Kiss is meant to be eternal. His romantic relationship with Marthe was not. Her frequent visits to Switzerland and her controlling mother put a distance between them. Despite plans to buy a plot of land and build a house together, Brâncuși hesitated to marry and settle down. His life was dedicated to sculpture. In letters, big hugs and kisses turn into simple warm hellos. TanTan is now Dear Monsieur Brâncuși. TonTon simply becomes Marthe.
For Brâncuși, The Kiss transcended Marthe. The sculpture predated their relationship and survived as a universal symbol of love – in letters to friends and on the Boundary Marker, which he dreamed of placing at national borders as a reminder of love’s importance.
“I wanted to capture not only the memory of this unique couple but of all the couples who loved each other on this earth before leaving it."
If you’re a helpless romantic, take a moment, stare at the Kiss and listen to the song below:
