Comments on: Portraits of luminaries of the arts - 1930s-'60s

Portraits of luminaries of the arts - 1930s-'60s

madamjujujive — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:08:36 -0800

Extravagant Crowd - Carl Van Vechten's Portraits of Women and Photos of African Americans. Previous post by ND¢: Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten 1932-1964. Also, public domain works from Wikimedia Commons.

Van Vechten was an influential critic, novelist, photographer, and promoter of the arts. He was an early patron of the Harlem Renaissance - but sparked a huge controversy with his unfortunately titled novel, Nigger Heaven. Despite this controversy, his interest in and high regard for African American arts was not in dispute. The Index and Introduction to the Portraits of Women collection is quite good, but for those who may not want to wade through all 96 pages of his African American collection, here is a selection I particularly liked: Eartha Kitt, 1954 Billy Dee Williams, 1963 James Earl Jones, 1961 Dizzie Gillespie, 1955, 2 James Baldwin, 1955 Ralph Bunche, 1951 Harry Belafonte, 1954 Billie Holiday, 1949, another, and with Mister Pearl Bailey, 1946 Leontyne Price, 1951, and as Bess Ossie Davis, 1951 Joyce Bryant, 1953 Diahann Carroll, 1955

By: taz

taz — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:39:13 -0800

Thanks, darling! I've been completely absorbed in these for over an hour, and I've only scratched the surface. So great. The texts accompanying the images in the first link are really excellent, too, leading me off in all sorts of directions. btw, does anyone else see a resemblance between young Pearl Bailey and Queen Latifah? Particularly here and here.

By: ocherdraco

ocherdraco — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:55:52 -0800

These are fascinating—what amazing women.

By: zoinks

zoinks — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:55:22 -0800

Nice. Scurlock might also be of interest to people who enjoy this.