(Anderson, Marian) Van Vechten, Carl

Portrait Photograph of Marian Anderson

Gelatin silver print. Half-length, profile portrait of the singer against studio backdrop. 35 x 27.5 cm. (13-7/8 x 10-7/8 inches), New York: 14 January, 1940. Docketed on rear with date of session, subject of the photo, and Van Vechten's reference number ('xii Q 9').

Superb, large portrait of the singer, taken a year after the famous incident in 1939 when she was banned by the Daughters of the American Revolution from singing at concert in Constitution Hall (prompting Eleanor Roosevelt's resignation from the DAR). Her popularity soared all the more after the triumphant open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939, before an audience of 75,000. Her quiet dignity, her concentration on her art, and reluctance to engage in hostilities impressed the world as much as her artistry. As she later wrote in MY LORD, WHAT A MORNING: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1956): " ... I did not feel that I was designed for hand-to-hand combat ... "

Item #220907       Price: $2,500.00