Object Details
- Artist
- James VanDerZee, born Lenox, MA 1886-died Washington, DC 1983
- Exhibition Label
- VanDerZee is best known for the studio portraits he made in Harlem after World War I. His sensitivity and the pride he felt from living and working within the community are clear in elegant and graceful images that challenged prevailing stereotypes. The sitter in Evening Attire is dressed in a beaded evening gown, an elegant, full hat, and a foxtail wrap; she holds a spray of flowers. Her stance, coupled with the backdrop, the brocade table cover, and a decorative figurine, evokes formal Victorian home interiors seen in Edwardian portraiture and nineteenth century cartes de visite, the small photographs people used as calling cards in the late nineteenth century.
- African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
- 1922
- Object number
- 1994.57.3
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Photography-Photoprint
- Medium
- gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- sheet: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Graphic Arts
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- African American
- Dress\accessory\hat
- Figure female\full length
- Dress\ceremonial\formal dress
- Object\flower
- Object\art object\sculpture
- Architecture Interior\studio
- Record ID
- saam_1994.57.3
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7b1fc7f07-8cb2-410a-8266-ab5566078298
