Glasses in the 20th Century

P. Mondrian's glasses and pipe.

1920s.

The optical device depicted in the portrait of Major General, participant in the Russo-Turkish War, and part-time theatre and film actor O. Stakhovich, is called a monocle, though it was often referred to as a "lorgnette". Wearing a monocle was a great art. O. Weinstein, in his aforementioned work "Dandy: Fashion, Literature, Lifestyle", quotes the memoirs of imagist A. Mariengof: "...Mariengof humbly asks the famous actor Vasily Kachalov to demonstrate the monocle to him. Kachalov had just returned from a foreign tour of Europe and America: 'And do you, Vasya, still have a monocle in your waistcoat pocket?' I asked... 'Yes, of course!' - 'Put it in, please. I want to learn. It's disgusting to put old glasses on your nose. And it's high time.' - 'Oh you dandy!' - And he, gracefully tossing the lens, pulled out with two fingers from his waistcoat pocket, caught it with his eye. - 'Brilliant!'