Description
A striking theatrical portrait of Katharine Cornell (1893–1974), one of the commanding figures of the twentieth-century American stage. Cornell is photographed in elaborate period costume—pearls, jeweled bodice, fur-trimmed sleeves and braided hair—with both hands framing her face in an unusually expressive, almost modern composition. Known as the “First Lady of the Theatre,” Cornell built her reputation through serious drama rather than Hollywood, with celebrated performances in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Romeo and Juliet, Saint Joan, Antony and Cleopatra and The Constant Wife. She was also a producer and theater owner whose company with husband Guthrie McClintic helped bring numerous important actors to Broadway.
That stage-centered career makes the photograph particularly evocative. Cornell largely resisted Hollywood—her only feature-film appearance was as herself in the 1943 wartime picture Stage Door Canteen—and her surviving imagery belongs overwhelmingly to the world of Broadway portraiture and theatrical publicity rather than movie-star machinery. Here the unidentified costume almost becomes secondary to the pose: the enormous hands, upward gaze, jewelry and tightly composed face create an image that feels less like routine publicity than a portrait of an actress completely conscious of gesture.
A wonderful portrait of American theater royalty—and an image with enough drama that you don’t need to know which curtain was about to rise.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.