Henry Rox "He was a Strange Little Figure" Tommy Apple Banana-land 1934/1940

Henry Rox

(born Heinz Rosenberg, Berlin, 1899 – South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1967)
"Tommy Apple in Banana-land" Illustration opp. P.18
“He Was a Very Strange Little Fellow”
Vintage silver gelatin print, 1934 / printed c. 1940
Image: 5.75 x 5 inches
Estate stamp and handwritten notation verso

The scene exemplifies Rox’s extraordinary method of constructed photographic illustration. Rather than drawing his imagery, Rox fabricated miniature sculptural environments by hand—complete with terrain, vegetation, and figures—then photographed them with precise control of lighting and tonal gradation. In this image, the protagonist encounters a “very strange little fellow” within a surreal landscape populated by meticulously arranged broccoli trees, transformed through scale and lighting into convincing arboreal forms. The composition demonstrates Rox’s fusion of stagecraft, sculpture, and photography, creating narrative tension within a compressed theatrical space.

Henry Rox was born Heinz Rosenberg in Berlin in 1899 into a prosperous Jewish mercantile family whose department store operated in one of the city’s principal commercial districts. This background afforded him elite academic training at the University of Berlin (1919–1923), the Charlottenburger Kunstgewerbeschule (1921–1925), and later in Paris at the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi (1925–1928). Trained primarily as a sculptor, Rox established a modern studio in Berlin and exhibited widely, including at the Salon d’Automne (Paris), Juryfreie Kunstschau Berlin, Freie Kunstschau Berlin, Preussische Akademie der Künste, the Berliner Secession, and in galleries associated with Paul Cassirer and Alfred Flechtheim.

Immersed in Weimar Berlin’s experimental atmosphere, Rox absorbed the constructed absurdity and theatrical logic of Dada. In 1933 he attended the Berliner Fotoschule, refining his technical command of photography. While his Berlin years provided the sculptural foundation and experimental sensibility that would later inform his photographic constructions, he did not formally develop his “photo-sculpture” method until after his relocation to London in 1934.

With the rise of National Socialism, Rox and his wife Lotte fled Germany in 1933, leaving behind his studio and possessions. His parents and extended family remained and were later murdered in Nazi concentration camps. He never saw them again.

Rebuilding his career in London beginning in 1934, Rox fully articulated what he termed “photo-sculpture” — sculptural constructions created specifically for photographic realization rather than pedestal display. It was in London that he began systematically constructing miniature environments intended from the outset for photographic completion, conceiving the photograph as the final object.

In collaboration with James Laver, he produced Tommy Apple and His Adventures in Banana-Land (1935) and Tommy Apple and Peggy Pear (1936), both published by Jonathan Cape. These works introduced his constructed photographic language into British publishing culture. Their originality led to commercial commissions for Guinness and major British cosmetic firms, demonstrating his ability to adapt sculptural humor to advertising contexts while retaining formal discipline.

Henry and Lotte Rox arrived in New York in May 1938. In 1939 he was appointed to a teaching position in sculpture at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. During his first year he commuted from New York before relocating permanently in 1940. This transitional period coincided with intense experimentation across media.

In 1940 Rox created an animated short incorporated into MGM’s Strike Up the Band, demonstrating continued engagement with narrative construction and material animation. His unsuccessful 1941 Guggenheim Fellowship application proposed further development of animation and film. A second application in 1949 again focused on sculpture. In 1954 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for sculpture and later became Mary Lyon Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke College.

After emigrating to the United States, Rox’s imagery gained broader visibility through American publishing networks under Henry Luce and Condé Nast, with circulation in major magazines including Life, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, and McCall’s. The 8 x 10 format of many prints from this period corresponds to the standard American editorial and advertising submission scale of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The present print bears the estate stamp, confirming its printing during his American academic period, while the image itself remains rooted in the decisive London moment of 1934, when Rox’s photo-sculptural method first emerged in fully realized form.

Following Rox’s death in 1967, the contents of his studio and residence were dispersed after the later death of Lotte Rox. A substantial portion — approximately 300–500 lifetime prints — was salvaged and preserved. No known negatives are extant. These prints therefore constitute the primary surviving material evidence of his photo-sculptural practice.

Rox’s work has recently undergone renewed institutional reassessment, including a 2021 exhibition at Fotohof, Salzburg; the inclusion of material from the “Banana Circus” series at the Bonartes Photo Institute in Vienna (December 2025 – February 2026); and participation in Berlin’s European Month of Photography.

“He Was a Very Strange Little Fellow” stands as a foundational image from Rox’s London period — the moment when sculptural intelligence, Dada-inflected material transformation, and photographic staging converged into a fully articulated modernist method.