Signed: Cab Calloway, XIX b.28 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 8”
Cabell “Cab” Calloway III (1907-1994) was a famous African American jazz singer and bandleader. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States’ most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s.
Signed: Robert Curtis, XVI . MM . 17 April 19 . 1955 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 146 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Signed: Anna May Wong 1932 (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 7/8”x W: 7 7/8”
Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first Chinese American actress to become a movie star in a career that spanned both the silent movie era and the advent of the talkies, along with starring roles on the stage, and in radio and television, even hosting her own television show at one point. This is all the more remarkable considering the racist times in which she worked. Many Asian actresses have been acclaimed since, under less adverse conditions, but none have reached Wong’s level. Some of her more notable silent movies include a leading role in The Toll of the Sea, one of the first color movies, The Thief of Bagdad, which starred Douglas Fairbanks, and Piccadilly. She was also featured in some notable talkies, including Shanghai Express, which co-starred Marlene Dietrich, and Daughter of the Dragon, in which she starred opposite an Asian leading man, Sessue Hayakawa. Early in her career, she was seen as a sex symbol, a feat other Asian actresses would not match for decades.
Signed: TRUMAN CAPOTE, IV ee.18, March 30. 1948 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 7/8” x W: 6 3/8”
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. Van Vechten took photographs of many the major artists and intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. The importance of these images is twofold; they document a specific time and milieu in 20th-century American history that was neglected by others, and they are among some of the earliest art photography images created.
Signed: Billie Holiday, March 23. 1949, III g9.11(in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 3/8” x W: 6 11/16”
Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers’ critic John Bush wrote that she “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.” Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.
Signed: PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back); VII . CC . 12 (in ink on back)
Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 7 15/16”
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American singer and actress. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1987, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of “Takes Two to Tango” hit the top ten in 1952.
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. Van Vechten took photographs of many the major artists and intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. The importance of these images is twofold; they document a specific time and milieu in 20th-century American history that was neglected by others, and they are among some of the earliest art photography images created.
Carl van Vechten, “Marlon Brando in a Streetcar Named Desire” 1948
CARL VAN VECHTEN (1880-1964) USA
Marlon Brando 1948
Signed: Brando in a Streetcar Named Desire, XIX F F 11, Dec 27. 48 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 6 ¾” x W: 4 7/8”
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. Van Vechten took photographs of many the major artists and intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. The importance of these images is twofold; they document a specific time and milieu in 20th-century American history that was neglected by others, and they are among some of the earliest art photography images created.
Signed: Bill Robison, XXV . b . 25 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 6 3/8”
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878-1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer.
Signed: ROSE COVARRUBIAS, 28 FEB 1932, V (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 146 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Signed: Frieda Kahlo de Riviera (in pencil on back); March 19, 1932, XVIi 25 (in red ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (blue ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 8 15/16” x W: 6 13/16”
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” -Frida Kahlo
Signed: Anna May Wong (in black ink on back); XXIII i:22 (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 7 7/16”
Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first Chinese American actress to become a movie star in a career that spanned both the silent movie era and the advent of the talkies, along with starring roles on the stage, and in radio and television, even hosting her own television show at one point. This is all the more remarkable considering the racist times in which she worked. Many Asian actresses have been acclaimed since, under less adverse conditions, but none have reached Wong’s level.
Some of her more notable silent movies include a leading role in The Toll of the Sea, one of the first color movies, The Thief of Bagdad, which starred Douglas Fairbanks, and Piccadilly. She was also featured in some notable talkies, including Shanghai Express, which co-starred Marlene Dietrich, and Daughter of the Dragon, in which she starred opposite an Asian leading man, Sessue Hayakawa. Early in her career, she was seen as a sex symbol, a feat other Asian actresses would not match for decades.
Signed: Roy Atkins (in black ink on back); Roy Atkins (in pencil on back); Jan. 19. 1934, I u ji12 (in red ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Signed: Henri Matisse (in pencil on back); May 30, 1933, XXIII c:10 (in red ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (blue ink stamp on back)
Signed: Leontyne Price as Bes, Porgy & Bess, XVII KK 20, May 19, 53 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
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