Object number1987.53.35
Elizabeth Bishop
Date1954
Artist
Rosalie Thorne McKenna
(American, 1918-2003)
CultureAmerican
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 8 3/4 x 7 1/4 in. (22.2 x 18.4 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn recto, lower right corner in white ink: © ROLLIE MCKENNA
InscribedOn reverse of mount, by artist, center in pencil [vertically]: Eliz Bishop, 1954 / # 7; by unidentified hand, lower right corner in pencil: 87.53.35
MarkingsOn reverse of mount, partially obscured stamp left center [vertically]: PHOTO BY / ROLLIE McKENNA / [copyright credit label] / Please Credit With Photo; stamped center right [vertically]: ASMP MEMBER / AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHERS; [vertically]: COPYRIGHT
BibliographyRosalie Thorne McKenna, Rollie McKenna: A Life in Photography (New York: Knopf, 1991), 140 (variant). ProvenanceGift of the artistVassar Exhibitions
Label TextIn 1954, McKenna traveled extensively in Latin America with curator Henry-Russell Hitchcock on assignment for the Museum of Modern Art, New York. During this trip, she detoured to visit American poet and fellow Vassar alumna Elizabeth Bishop and her partner, Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares, at their modernist home in Samambaia, Petrópolis, Brazil. While there, McKenna made a portrait of Bishop, seated with her elbows resting casually on a tabletop near an ashtray of stubbed–out cigarettes. Bishop looks straight into the camera with a playful, even flirtatious expression, a contented air of softness that contrasts with her perfectly coiffed hair, painted nails, and crisp geometry of her patterned blouse. McKenna was evidently a thoroughly disarming presence in Bishop’s home. In a letter to McKenna written after the visit, Bishop expressed her apprehension about her appearance in photographs and desire to exude composure, especially as a woman writer. It is a testament to McKenna’s technique and demeanor that her shots of Bishop show the poet laughing, animated, and at ease. Like McKenna’s portraits of Dylan Thomas, this photograph was reproduced frequently for years to come.
DescriptionMounted on board, hinged to backing mat. Portrait of woman in patterned blouse with short wavy hair sitting with elbows on table and left hand at left cheek looking at photographer, ashtray on tableTerms
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
To help improve this record, please email
loebcollections@vassar.edu
