VINTAGE 1955 CARL VAN VECHTEN PHOTOGRAPH GAY INTEREST PORTRAIT ROBERT MASTERSON

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Thanksfor visiting Grapefruit Moon Gallery on ebay, we are honored to be your one-stop, 5 star source for vintage pin-up, Hollywood glamour and erotic photography, pulp magazines, original illustration art, decorative collectibles and ephemera with a wide and always changing assortment of antique and vintage items from the Victorian, art nouveau,art deco, & mid-century modern eras. All items are 100% guaranteed to be original, vintage, and as described. Please feel free to contact us with any and all questions about the items and our policies and please take a moment to peruse our other great ebay listings. All sell no reserve.ITEM: You are bidding on a vintage original double weight photograph dating to 1955, taken by famed artist photographer Carl Van Vechten, a noted chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance. A striking view of R obert M asterson , seen in a dressing robe in an emotionally intense and intima te portrait . We h ave not been able to find out much about the subject, but we have come into a series of photographs featuring him, taken by Van Vechten, in an increasing state of undress. With handwritten name and date on verso, this comes from the collection of the Ann Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, FL . Measures approximately 6 3/4" x 9 7/8" complete and marginless as created. 100% guaranteed vintage and original as always from Grapefruit Moon Gallery. CONDITION: This original antique double weight matte photograph is in fine condition, image has the some minor edge wear as seen in scans. Artist Bio: 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. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Van Vechten graduated from the University of Chicago in 1903. In 1906, he moved to New York City where he was hired as the assistant music critic at the New York Times. His interest in opera led him take a leave of absence from the paper in 1907, to travel to Europe to explore the medium. While in England he married his long time friend from Cedar Rapids, Anna Snyder. He returned to his job at the New York Times in 1909 and became the first American critic of modern dance. His marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912 and he wed actress Fania Marinoff in 1914. Several books of Van Vechten's essays on various subjects such as music and literature were published between 1915 and 1920. Between 1922 and 1930 Knopf published seven novels by Van Vechten, starting with Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works and ending with Parties . Van Vechten was interested in black writers and artists, and knew and promoted many of the major figures of the Harlem Rennaissance, including Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, Richard Wright, and Wallace Thurman. Van Vechten's controversial novel Nigger Heaven was published in 1926>. His essay "Negro Blues Singers" was published in Vanity Fair in 1926. In the 1930s, Van Vechten began taking portrait photographs. Among the many individuals he photographed were Judith Anderson, Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Bel Geddes, Thomas Hart Benton, Jane Bowles, Marlon Brando, Paul Cadmus, Erskine Caldwell, Truman Capote, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Ruby Dee, Jacob Epstein, Ella Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lynn Fontanne, John Hersey, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Horst P. Horst, Mahalia Jackson, Philip Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Gaston Lachaise, Sidney Lumet, Alfred Lunt, Norman Mailer, Alicia Markova, Henri Matisse, W. Somerset Maugham, Henry Miller, Joan Miró, Ramon Novarro. Georgia O'Keeffe, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Leontyne Price, Diego Rivera, Jerome Robbins, Cesar Romero, George Schuyler Beverly Sills, Gertrude Stein, James Stewart, Alfred Stieglitz, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, Bessie Smith, Alice B. Toklas; Gore Vidal, Evelyn Waugh, Orson Welles, Thornton Wilder, and Anna May Wong. Van Vechten initially met Gertrude Stein in Paris in 1913. They continued corresponding for the remainder of Stein's l... read more

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