Female Portrait Photographs by Carl Van Vechten

Carl Van Vechten (1880 – 1964) was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.

In the 1930s, Van Vechten began taking portrait photographs.

Among the many individuals he photographed were Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Theda Bara, Harry Belafonte, Leonard Bernstein,  Karen Blixen, Jane Bowles, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Ella Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Martha Graham, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Horst P. Horst, Mahalia Jackson, Frida Kahlo, Eartha Kitt, Henri Matisse, W. Somerset Maugham, Elsa Maxwell, Henry Miller, Joan Miró, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Diego Rivera, Gertrude Stein, James Stewart, Alfred Stieglitz, Gloria Vanderbilt, Gore Vidal, Evelyn Waugh, Orson Welles and Anna May Wong.

 

Frida wearing a Tchuantepee gourd by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 via

Tallulah Bankhead by Carl Van Vechten, 1934 via

 Anna May Wong by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 via

Josephine Baker by Carl Van Vechten via

Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 via

Lillian Gish by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 via

Theda Bara by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 via

Karen Blixen by Carl Van Vechten, 1959 via

Prima Ballerina Alexandra Danilova by Carl Van Vechten (1948)

Aleksandra Danilova (1903-July 13, 1997) was a Russian-born prima ballerina who became an American citizen. Here she is Fanny Cerrito in Pas de Quatre, photo by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) via