[Nude Draped with Cloth Surrounded by Flowers]

James Van Der Zee

1920s–40s · Gelatin silver print with applied color · Photographs

During the 1920s and 1930s, Van Der Zee enjoyed a reputation as Harlem’s preeminent portrait photographer, catering to everyone from proud parents, shopkeepers, and newlyweds to such luminaries as Marcus Garvey, Bill Robinson, and Adam Clayton Powell Sr. An inventive photographer and printer, Van Der Zee, whose career spanned more than seventy years, used a variety of means—including props, painted backdrops, photomontage, and retouching—to achieve his desired effects. Here, he poses his subject like a reclining Venus, surrounding her with drapery and flowers, and adds color through the application of pigment.

Artist

James Van Der Zee

Date

1920s–40s

Medium

Gelatin silver print with applied color

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of James Van Der Zee Institute, 1970