Pasqualino

Von Gloeden, Portrait of Pasqualino Stracuzzi.

On the back: stamp "W. von Gloeden, Taormina (Sicilia). Proprieta artistisca)

and number "1321" written with a pencil.

Private collection.

"My dear Wilhelm,

Thanks so much for this so beautiful portrait of my favorite Taormina boy, Pasqualino...

He is so beautiful, so expressive, so unique...

Bellissimo ragazzo, molto bello...

There is no beauty without spirituality.

There is no body without a soul.

There is no love without a cult.

I still remember fondly my stay at Taormina, last fall, and my visit at your house.

And I am so grateful for meeting Pasqualino and having some... well... some private and intimate time with him...

I love him. I love him so much.  He is just so... Well, you know...

I adore this new portrait of him...

I imagine he is praying: "Please, come back... Come back soon... I miss you..."

Please, Wilhelm, my friend, tell him; I miss him too. I miss him so badly.

I hope to travel to Sicily at the end of spring. When cherry trees are blossoming, as the boys of Taormina...

Please, Wilhelm, my friend, please tell Pasqualino that I will be back soon.

And that my first time in Taormina will be for him...

We will meet again in his so delicious casa, at the top of the village.

I know how to enter the house (and his room !) without being heard or noticed by his parents... I know his father does not know... !

Yours, as always...

Edwin, from Baltimore
Novembre 1899"

Von Gloeden Archive, Letter from Edwin to W. von Gloeden, November 1899. Call number: 1899/27.