Friday, October 17, 2025

Less Than Forthright

Bruce Davidson
Coney Island Beach
1959
gelatin silver print
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC


Roe Ethridge
Deborah Muller with Tripod
2008
C-print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Francis Dodd
The Doorkeeper
1907
drypoint
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Boris Chaliapin
Tyrone Guthrie
1966
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Vanessa Bell
Mrs St John Hutchinson
(mistress of Vanessa Bell's husband Clive)
1915
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Ansel Adams
Self Portrait
1936
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Ernest Baker
Henry Ford
1941
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Burhan Dogançay
Untitled
1969
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

attributed to Vittore Carpaccio
Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman
ca. 1510
oil on panel
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Agostino Carracci
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1584-90
oil on canvas
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Agnolo Bronzino
Portrait of Eleonora da Toledo
ca. 1560
oil on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jerry Farnsworth
Adolf Hitler
1933
oil on paper, mounted on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

David Armstrong
Tom at East River Park, New York City
1993
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Hazel Larsen Archer
Ray Johnson
ca. 1948
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Boris Artzybasheff
Lee Harvey Oswald
1964
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Anonymous Photographer for Paris Vogue
Françoise Sagan
1954
gelatin silver print
Bibliothèque nationale de France

Miggs Burroughs
Oil executive Gerrit Wagner
1973
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

from Silvae

    But he is happy, and you mourn in vain.
He has outsoared the envy of gods and men,
False fortune and the dark and treacherous way,
– Scatheless: he never lived to pray for death,
Nor sinned – to fear her, nor deserved to die.
We that survive him, weak and full of woes,
Live ever with a fearful eye on Death –
The how and when of dying: 'Death' the thunder,
'Death' the wild lightning speaks to us.

– Statius (AD 45-96), translated by H.W. Garrod (1912)