Musical

Federico Zandomeneghi
Singing Lesson
1890
oil on canvas
Gallerie di Piazza Scala, Milan

Thérèse Lessore
Man singing to Accompaniment
1920
watercolor on paper
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Philippe Halsman
Marian Anderson
1945
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Anonymous French Sculptor
Three Angels singing the Gloria
(fragment of Nativity scene)
ca. 1467
painted stone
Musée du Louvre

Hendrick ter Brugghen
The Concert
1629
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Alfred Edward Chalon
Opera singer Antonio Tamburlini
in Bellini's I Puritani in London
1835
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Giovanni Lanfranco
Venus playing the Harp
(depiction of an actual harp owned by the Barberini)
ca. 1630-34
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Rutilio Manetti
Music-making by Candlelight
before 1639
oil on canvas
Palazzo Chigi Saraceni, Siena

Henry Somm
Yvette Guilbert singing
ca. 1900
gouache on paper
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Sigismondo Caula
Concert with Ten Musicians
ca. 1685
drawing
British Museum

Pietro Longhi
Il Concertino
1741
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Annibale Gatti
Fête Champêtre
1865
ceiling painting
Villa Favard di Rovezzano, Florence

Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli)
The Concert
1508
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jacob Jordaens
As the Old Sing, so Pipe the Young
before 1678
chalk and watercolor on paper
British Museum

Jacques Stella
Angelic Chorus in Clouds
before 1657
drawing
British Museum

Taddeo Zuccaro
Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus
ca. 1553
detached fresco
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Annie Leibovitz
Jessye Norman, New York
1988
gelatin silver print
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

from Love and Death: Last Lines

Thus much and more; and yet thou lov'st me not,

    And never wilt! Love dwells not in our will.

Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot

    To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still. 

– George Gordon, Lord Byron (1820)

Fifties Individuals

Philippe Halsman
Marlon Brando
1950
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Philippe Halsman
Zsa Zsa Gabor
1951
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Richard Avedon
Buster Keaton
1952
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

 

Elizabeth Catlett
Ethel Rosenberg
1952
drawing
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Carl Van Vechten
Leontyne Price
1952
photogravure
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Chim (David Seymour)
Kirk Douglas
1954
(inkjet print produced from original negative in 2006)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Gordon Parks
Gloria Vanderbilt, New York
1954
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Ben Shahn
J. Robert Oppenheimer
1954
drawing
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Leigh Wiener
Billie Holiday
1954
gelatin silver print
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC

John Koch
Princess Margaret
1955
oil on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Kay Bell Reynal
T.S. Eliot
1955
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Henry Koerner
Julie Harris
1955
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Elmer Bischoff
Richard Diebenkorn
ca. 1956
ink on paper
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Leon Levinstein
West Side
1957
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Boris Artzybasheff
George Beadle
1958
tempera on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Bernard Safran
Jean Thom
1958
oil on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Man Ray
Naomi Savage
ca. 1959
color transparency back-coated with gouache
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

from Near The New Whitney

In the Meatpacking District,

Not far from the new Whitney,

In a charming restaurant,

I showed how charming I can be.

I showed how blue my eyes can be. 

I showed I can be Dante first catching sight of Beatrice.

The maître d' was new to me.

The sudden sight of her, so gently lovely,

Threw me at the pressed-tin ceiling, where I stuck.

I asked her where I was, her name was Emily.

I don't know who the ceiling was.

I doubt pressed tin was what it was. 

I was moonstruck.

Now I could only look up.

American art used to be risky.

American art used to be frisky

And drink a lot of whisky.

I looked up at Emily, not far from the new Whitney.

Seventy years ago

There were violently drunkard painters downtown who,

Many of them, painted violently

In the Hamptons also.

Now they were in the splendid new Whitney, dead

Instead.

– Frederick Seidel (2018)

Concert

Gerrit van Honthorst
Concert on a Balcony
1624
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Antoine Houdon
Constance Marie de Theis, princesse de Salm-Dyck
ca. 1803
plaster bust
Musée du Louvre

Juan de Flandes
Birth and Naming of St John the Baptist
ca. 1496-99
oil on panel
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Charles Keene
Madame Zambaco drawing
ca. 1855
etching
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Giovanni Domenico Lombardi (l'Omino)
Concert
ca. 1720-25
oil on canvas
private collection

Jean-Antoine Houdon
Portrait of Denis Diderot
1771
terracotta bust
Musée du Louvre

Juan de Flandes
Nativity
ca. 1508
oil on panel (altarpiece fragment)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Charles Keene
Sketch of Passengers
ca. 1875
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Leonello Spada
The Concert
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Antoine Houdon
Portrait of Sophie Arnould
1775
marble bust
Musée du Louvre

Juan de Flandes
Adoration of the Magi
ca. 1508
oil on panel (altarpiece fragment)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Charles Keene
Garden Scene
ca. 1880
drawing (sketch for illustration in Punch)
British Museum

Abraham van der Schoor
Concert
ca. 1662
oil on canvas
National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania

Jean-Antoine Houdon
Portrait of Voltaire
1778
marble bust
Musée du Louvre

Juan de Flandes
Baptism of Christ
ca. 1508
oil on panel (altarpiece fragment)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Charles Keene
Study of Hands holding Musket
1862
drawing (print study for magazine illustration)
British Museum

Gaspare Traversi
The Concert
ca, 1755-60
oil on canvas
Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, Naples

from the field's plane tree

Telemon wolf-killer hangs

this hide this wild olive

staff he threw so often

bless him woodland god

by taking these poor gifts

by giving him hunting rights

where you rule, this mountain

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by Dennis Schmitz