The Saint Louis, Missouri–born Josephine Baker arrived in Paris in 1925 and quickly made a sensation as part of the all-black Revue Nègre, a musical entertainment that capitalized on the French craze for American Jazz. Famously donning a banana skirt for her danse sauvage, Baker crafted performances that astutely deployed the stereotypes white Europeans associated with blackness, recouping them as instruments of her own empowerment and success. Baker shines amid the glittering backdrop and soft focus of de Meyer’s photograph, creating an iconic image of stardom.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Josephine Baker
Artist:Adolf de Meyer (American (born France), Paris 1868–1946 Los Angeles, California)
Date:1925–26
Medium:Direct carbon print
Dimensions:Overall: 17 13/16 × 11 5/8 in. (45.2 × 29.5 cm) Mount: 21 15/16 in. × 16 in. (55.7 × 40.6 cm)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Accession Number:1987.1100.16
Inscription: Pencil crop marks on print, recto TL, BL.
Adolf de Meyer (1868–1946); by descent to Ernest Frohlich de Meyer (1914–1978); [...]; (Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October 20, 1980, lot 116, to Lunn); [Harry Lunn, consignment to Miller]; [Robert Miller Gallery, sold to Waddell October 22, 1983]; John C. Waddell, until 1987
Upon de Meyer's death, his adopted son and lover Ernest placed the artist's belongings in a steamer trunk and deposited it with a storage company in Los Angeles, where it remained until Ernest's death. On October 20, 1980, the contents of the trunk were auctioned at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits: A Century of Photographs," September 10, 2002–January 13, 2003.
Sheldon Art Galleries. "Picturing Josephine," April 20, 2006–August 25, 2006.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Picturing Josephine," November 23, 2006–April 8, 2007.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Quicksilver Brilliance: Adolf de Meyer Photographs," December 4, 2017–March 18, 2018.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jewelry: The Body Transformed," November 12, 2018–February 24, 2019.
The Collection of Baron de Meyer. New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., October 20, 1980. no. 116.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 46.
Murrell, Denise, ed. The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024. pl. 89, p. 236.
Adolf de Meyer (American (born France), Paris 1868–1946 Los Angeles, California)
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