Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Show People

Monogrammist J.B. (English printmaker)
The Young Roscius and Don John on the Theatrical Pegasus
(young acting star Henry West Betty supplanting veteran actor John Kemble)
1804
hand-colored etching
British Museum


Samuel De Wilde
William Macready as Mr Colloony
in The Irishman in London

1805
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Samuel De Wilde
Mr Aubery as the Lay Brother
in The Duenna

1810
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Samuel De Wilde
Mrs Henry Johnston as Catherine
in The Exiles

1815
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Samuel De Wilde
Sarah Egerton as Meg Merrilies
in Guy Mannering

1816
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Henry Monnier
Actor in Costume
1839
graphite and watercolor on paper
British Museum

Carlo Ponti
Man with Cello, Venice
ca. 1860-70
hand-colored albumen print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

August Sander
Zirkusartistin
1926
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alfred Frankfurter
Barnum & Bailey Circus Performers
1942
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Irving Penn
Alfred Hitchcock, New York
1947
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

George Platt Lynes
Dancer in Costume
ca. 1948
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Brassaï
The Break, The Opéra, Paris
1959
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Richard Avedon
Movie-making at the Factory -
Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey, Joe Dallesandro
1970
gelatin silver print
private collection

Richard Avedon
Movie-making at the Factory -
Eric Emerson, Jay Johnson, Tom Hompertz, Gerard Malanga
1970
gelatin silver print
private collection

Richard Avedon
Movie-making at the Factory -
Gerard Malanga, Viva, Paul Morrissey, Taylor Mead, Brigid Polk, Joe Dallesandro, Andy Warhol
1970
gelatin silver print
private collection

Annie Leibovitz
Renée Fleming
2008
C-print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Zed Nelson
Portrait of actor David Tennant
2011
C-print
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Dedication: a Spear

Stand you here, murdering shaft, no longer
Dripping the enemy's spilt blood from your bronze claw;
But staying in Athena's tall-built house of marble,
Advertise the bravery of Echecratidas, the Cretan.  

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by John Heath-Stubbs and Carol A. Whiteside