Extravagant Crowd: Carl Van Vechten's Portraits of Women

by Nancy Kuhl

Extravagant Carl Van Vechten's Portraits of Women, the catalog for a Beinecke Library exhibition of the same name, includes photographs of about 85 women of achievement photographed by Van Vechten between 1932-1964; each photograph is accompanied by a short biography of the subject. The women include some of the best known of Van Vechten's subjects--Gertrude Stein, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Marianne Moore to name a few--and some now-forgotten women who made significant contributions to the Broadway theater community, the Harlem Renaissance, the early Hollywood film industry, and the 1920s and '30s expatriate communities in Paris and London. The group includes performers of all kinds, writers, journalists, salon hostesses, artists, photographers, social activists, etc. The catalog includes an introduction by Bruce Kellner, a leading Harlem Renaissance scholar and the executor of Van Vechten's estate.

Genres: Photography

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lois Moran captured Fitzgerald's heart (and, maybe, other parts too), inspiring Rosemary in Tender is the Night. The young actress is among the dozens of "extravagant" women lensed by CVV after he stopped novel writing in the early 30s and devoted his life to photography. His subjects are always dramatically posed-lit against atmospheric rolls of decorative "wall paper" sheets in his studio. CVV, who photographed every lively member of Arts & Letters around NYC, fr Brando to Albee, is repped elsewhere by his male erotica. His studio was open all-night.

This handsomely produced volume, w bios of the personalities, can be seen by Googling its title, which is a nifty extra. Want to see a photo of "Bryher," daughter of one of the UKs richest and Signif Other of "H.D." -- Well, here she is. Her face is strictly for radio, but she was a wonderful character who married the writer-editor Robert McAlmon to get away fr daddy, Sir John Ellerman. (See his : Being Geniuses Together).

Stage designer Aline Bernstein met Thomas Wolfe, 25, on a liner returning from Europe and they began a turbulent affair. She was 20 years older, married w 2 tots. Aline made sure he got his first novel written. A strong, vigorous woman, she weathered his crushing anti-sem slurs when the unhappy prince was drunk. (There's a movie--) Both Aline and CVV are characters in Wolfe novels.

Tallulah. CVV met her at the Algonquin Hotel when she was in her teens and had just arrived fr Alabama. A few years later they cracked open several bottles in London where she was a Star. At CVVs 83rd bday party she interrupted Mabel Mercer to sing Bye, Bye Blackbird. She looks like a ravenous orchid in his 30s photo.

And then CVVs wife (what do we know of her?), Fania Marinoff. A Russian immigrant, she arrived here as a child, the youngest of 13, hoping for luck in the New World. Almost homeless she found Life onstage. An exotic, emotional firefly who acted w the Theatre Guild, and, much later, w Tallu. She was married to CVV for 50 years and appreciated what few do : to keep a relationship "alive," you keep one eye closed and don't stop acting.

CVV died in 1964. I can't think of any interesting personalities since then who might deserve or win his lens. Today it's all Instant Media Rabble.

[Anna Leahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. It’s an art book, but the written parts are great too. I learned and thought a lot.