Otto Sarony, Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit, 1901 via
Otto Sarony, Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit, 1901 via
Category Archives: Evelyn Nesbit
Evelyn Nesbit by Otto Sarony (1901)
Portraits by Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934)
Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.
Her husband supported her financially when she began to attend art school at the age of thirty-seven, a time when most women of her day were well-settled in their social positions. Käsebier never indicated what motivated her to study art, but she devoted herself to it wholeheartedly.
Throughout the late 1910s and most of the 1920s Käsebier expanded her portrait business, taking photos of many important people of the time including Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies, Mabel Dodge and Stanford White. In 1924 her daughter Hermine Turner joined her in her portrait business.
In 1929 Käsebier gave up photography altogether and liquidated the contents of her studio. That same year she was given a major one-person exhibition at the Booklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Käsebier died on 12 October 1934 at the home of her daughter, Hermine Turner.
Miss N (Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit), 1903 by Gertrude Käsebier via
Girl in Satin Dress with Roses by Gertrude Käsebier (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) via
The Bride by Gertrude Käsebier, 1902 via
Genevieve Lyon by Gertrude Käsebier, 1914 via
Portrait of Miss Minnie Ashley by Gertrude Käsebier, 1905 via
The Magic Crystal, or the Crystal Gazer by Gertrude Käsebier, 1904 via
Self-Portrait by Gertrude Käsebier, 1905 via
A Collection of Photos Featuring “it” Girl Evelyn Nesbit
Evelyn Nesbit (1884 – 1967) was known to millions before her 16th birthday in 1900. She was the most photographed woman of her era, an iconic figure who set the standard for female beauty.
In the early part of the 20th century, her figure and face was everywhere, appearing in mass circulation newspaper and magazine advertisements, on souvenir items and calendars, making her a cultural celebrity. She was a popular cover face on Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, The Delineator, Women’s Home Companion, Ladies’ Home Journal and Cosmopolitan.
Her career began in her early teens in Philadelphia and continued in New York, where she posed for a cadre of respected artists of the era, James Carroll Beckwith, Frederick S. Church, and notably Charles Dana Gibson, who idealized her as a “Gibson Girl.” She had the distinction of being an early “live model,” in an era when fashion photography as an advertising medium was just beginning its ascendancy.
As a stage performer, and while still a teenager, she attracted the attention of the then 47-year-old architect and New York socialite Stanford White, who became her lover and dedicated benefactor. Nesbit achieved world-wide notoriety when her jealous husband, multi-millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, shot and murdered Stanford White on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden on the evening of June 25, 1906, leading to what the press would call “The Trial of the Century.” and Evelyn became known as “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.”
In 1955 she was portrayed by Joan Collins in the film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. Marilyn Monroe had been 20th Century-Fox’s original choice for the role.
Evelyn Nesbit by Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. via
Evelyn Nesbit via
Evelyn Nesbit via
A Collection of Turn of the Century Fashion Photographs
Otto Sarony, Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit, 1900s via
Tightlaced Gibson Girl, Camille Clifford, showing her ideal La Belle Époque figure via
Edwardian lady wearing Redfern, who among other things popularised high-waisted Grecian style dresses after 1908 via
Dress for the races by J. Dukes, photo by Reutlinger, Les Modes, May 1912 via
A fashionable woman at the races in 1909. Scanned from the book “The Mechanical Smile” by Caroline Evans via
Gorgeous Edwardian dresses, hats and parasols, 1906. Belle epoque fashion via
Actress Lily Elsie in an Ewdardian gown via
Raoul Dufy was one of the great innovators of 20th century textile design here is an example on velvet for a Paul Poiret cape 1911 via
Woman wearing French fashion. ca. 1905 via
Fashion, ca. 1914 via
Antique photo postcard of Edwardian beauty with a large hat and a snowfox stole around her shoulders via
Superb Vintage Photos of Beautiful Edwardian Era Hairstyles
Edwardian hairstyles were largely dictated by the millinery trade. The hairstyles had a soft, fluffy and loose fluidity about them. Hair was dressed off the face, with the exception of a fringe, and hairstyles rarely had a parting.
The defining Edwardian hairstyle for women was the pompadour. After the Pompadour´s initial popularity among fashionable women in the 18th century, it was revived as part of the Gibson Girl look in the 1890s and continued to be in vogue until World War I.
Other hairstyles were fx. the Low Pompadour (for everyday), Hat Pin Hairstyles (for the late Edwardian Cartwheel hat), the Gibson Tuck, the Side-Swirl (the style allowed women to easier wear the picture hats), the bouffant and the chignon. Usually the full Pompadour hairstyle was kept for special occasions. In the early part of the Edwardian era it was accompanied by the “picture” hat; hats that were worn high on the head and heavily decorated with fabric, feathers or imitation flowers or fruit.
The Pompadour hairstyle could be dressed in all manner of styles, but the basic concept is hair swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead, and sometimes upswept around the sides and back as well. The style could feature soft coils and fuzzy curled fringes. It could be decorated with a bun, chignon or knot, depending on what was in vogue at the time and the occasion. Chignons tended to sit low on the nape, or at the back of the head. A bun could also be situated on the crown. A knot is hair that is twisted to form a rope, and then coiled to form a shape. The different shapes had names, for example the Apollo Kno, the Psyche Knot and the Grecian Knot. A topknot sits high on the head.
Evelyn Nesbit, who posed for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, and became known as the first “Gibson Girl.” Gibson’s drawings of women represented the feminin ideal of the time via
The Soft Pompadour and Psyche Knot. From Girls Own Paper and Woman’s magazine, 1911 via
Gibson Girls with Pompadour hair via
After the Victorian era hair got bigger and bigger via
Actress Gabrielle Ray´s hairstyle fits her large decorated hat, 1906 via
Edwardian lady with big frizzy hair via
Miss Ethel Oliver with big Edwardian hair via
Nancy Astor with a knot, 1908 via
FROM THE BYGONE 