Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century
Newly added to our database is this color portrait of Arthur Miller. Karsh photographed Miller and a whole host of other people across 1990 and 1991 for his book American Legends (Bulfinch Press, 1992), including Jessye Norman, Isaac Stern, Cesar Chavez, Jasper Johns, and many more.
Linus Pauling, born February 28, 1901, (d.1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time.
Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. He is also one of only two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields – Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1954; Nobel Peace Prize, 1962.
Corazon “Cory” Aquino was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th President of the Philippines, becoming the first woman to hold that office. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 “People Power Revolution”, which ended the 20-year rule of President Ferdinand Marcos – defections from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the support of the local Catholic hierarchy led to the Revolution that ousted Marcos and secured Aquino’s accession on February 25, 1986.
American playwright Tennessee Williams died on February 25, in 1983. Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911, he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944). It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and The Night of the Iguana (1961).
1956 brought Mr. Karsh an amazing array of Sitters, from Audrey Hepburn to Igor Stravinsky, and advertising shoots for J. Walter Thompson. Browse them here.
On February 24, 2008, after nearly 50 years in power, Fidel Castro retired as President of Cuba. He served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008. He died in November, 2016.
Karsh photographed Castro in 1971. He wrote: “I arrived in Havana on the twenty-sixth of July, Cuba’s national holiday, in time to hear this charismatic speaker address thousands of people in a rousing endorsement of the benefits of the Revolution. It was, for Castro, a short speech-two-and-a-half hours instead of his customary six. For the next three days, my companion and tour guide was Celia Sanchez, Cuba’s wiry, energetic Secretary of State. From the three sites Ms. Sanchez offered for photography, I chose a simple ceremonial room, its stark walls and bookshelves suggesting a barracks, which turned out to be Castro’s favorite office.”
Today marks the 67th anniversary of the first mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine. It took place on February 23, 1954, at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Salk performed every shot personally in the school’s gymnasium.
Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist and one of the “fathers of the atomic bomb”, died on this day, February 18, in 1967. He was born in New York City in 1904.
Karsh photographed Robert Oppenheimer in 1956 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. By this time, “Increasingly concerned about the potential danger to humanity arising from scientific discoveries, Oppenheimer joined with Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Rotblat and other eminent scientists and academics to establish what would eventually become the World Academy of Art and Science in 1960.” Read more (Wikipedia).
American magazine Newsweek launched on February 17, in 1933. Karsh photographed several people for the weekly publication. The Sitters include British Prime Minister Clement Attlee; 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover; US Attorney General Tom Clark; and the one and only Ms. Marian Anderson; plus this January, 1969, cover portrait of President-Elect Richard Nixon and his wife, Patricia.
We mark the anniversary of Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” strip which ran in the Sunday papers on February 13, 2000, the day after Schulz died in his sleep at his California home at age 77.
In his book American Legends (Bullfinch Press, 1992) Karsh wrote of the artist, “He presented me with America’s favorite beagle, a tiny velvet “Snoopy,” as a gift to my wife, and it remains among her favorite sentimental treasures.”
American actress Kim Novak celebrated her 88th birthday on February 13, 2021. She is pictured here in costume for the 1964 movie Of Human Bondage, which is based on W. Somerset Maugham‘s 1915 novel of the same title. Novak has spent the latter part of her life as an artist and activist and will be releasing a book of her art this year.
Novak is widely known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock‘s masterpiece Vertigo and had made a stand for better pay in 1960s Hollywood. The story goes, Novak was striking for more money from Columbia Pictures, and refused to show up for work on the Vertigo set, to protest her salary of $1,250 a week. Novak hired new agents to represent her and demanded an adjustment in her contract. Head of Columbia, Harry Cohn, who was paid $250,000 for Novak to do Vertigo, suspended her, but after a few weeks of negotiations, he relented and offered her a new contract worthy of a major star. She was now receiving $3,000 a week and explained to the press, “I don’t like to have anyone take advantage of me.” Read more (Wikipedia).
Scottish novelist and politician John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, died on this day, February 11, in 1940 (b. 1875).
Aside from his political work, as an author, Buchan was mainly known for The Thirty-Nine Steps but he in fact wrote about a hundred books. Buchan was Governor General of Canada from 1935 to 1940 and was photographed by Karsh multiple times during this period, and after. The two were close: read more about their relationship.
Read more about this portrait, and about the 2019 biography Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Buchan’s granddaughter, Ursula Buchan.
The Eisenhower Memorial Commission has sent their final dispatch, as the Eisenhower Memorial is now in the stewardship of the National Park Service. We have enjoyed sharing this portrait with the Commission and its followers throughout the planning and execution of the Memorial.
See more portraits of Eisenhower.
Canadian actor Christopher Plummer has died. Plummer made his Broadway debut in 1954, and received multiple accolades including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 82 in 2010.
Russian-American violinist Jascha Heifetz was born on February 2, in 1901. Born in Vilna (Vilnius), he moved as a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood – Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said on hearing Heifetz’s debut, “We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees.”
Late in life, Heifetz became a dedicated teacher and a champion of socio-political causes. He publicly advocated to establish 911 as an emergency phone number, and crusaded for clean air. He and his students at the University of Southern California protested smog by wearing gas masks, and in 1967, he converted his Renault passenger car into an electric vehicle. He died in 1987. Read more (Wikipedia).
Bertrand Russell died on this day, February 2, in 1970. Born in the UK in 1872, Russell was a polymath, philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950, the year after this portrait was made.
American film actor Clark Gable was born on February 1, in 1901. Gable had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years; The Misfits was his final appearance, premiering in 1961, the year following Gable’s death.
Karsh photographed an incredible array of more than 150 people in 1948, including contralto Marian Anderson; first Governor of the Bank of Canada, Graham Towers; President Truman; and several businessmen for J. Walter Thompson advertising (not least the wonderfully-named Cloud Wampler Esq.) See the whole list.
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 1953 Karsh set off to investigate on assignment for Canada’s Maclean’s magazine. This image is one of several that ran in a spread about “the legend a stampede built” and thrillingly the magazine’s archive is available online.
Maclean’s, January 1, 1954: “In Calgary’s one zany week of celebration even the neon signs seem to go crazy. But even wild horses couldn’t keep Yousuf Karsh out of the Stampede corral during the roping display shown in the photograph at the right. Here unbroken horses off the range are sent plummeting into the infield where three-man teams try to rope, halter and ride them. For the rest of the week Karsh roamed through street dances and Palliser Hotel parties, photographing Calgarians who were sometimes as wild as their own horses. But prettier.”
Maclean’s is still publishing; the Calgary Stampede is scheduled for July 2021; and the Palliser Hotel still exists as “one of the City of Calgary’s oldest and one of the most luxurious hotels.”
We lost the American poet Robert Frost on January 29, in 1963. Born in 1874, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime and is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.
While researching to find the name of this pup, (its name was Wag), I found this very portrait being used to illustrate a publication of Frost’s poem “Canis Major”.
Polish-American classical pianist Artur Rubenstein was born on this day, January 28, in 1887 (d. 1982). At age two, Rubinstein demonstrated absolute pitch and a fascination with the piano, watching his elder sister’s piano lessons. By the age of four, he was recognized as a child prodigy. He played in public for eight decades. Read more (Wikipedia).
American novelist, poet, and short-story writer John Updike died on this day, January 27, in 2009. Born in 1932, Updike is one of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. He published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children’s books. This portrait recently appeared on the cover of a new book about Updike from University of Kansas Press: The Moderate Imagination: The Political Thought of John Updike and the Decline of New Deal Liberalism by Yoav Fromer.
See some other Pulitzer Prize winners who were photographed by Karsh include Pearl Buck, Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Robert Frost, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Carl Sandburg.
We received a request for the Indian philosopher, speaker and writer, Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), and so have added him to the ever-growing searchable archive here on our website.
His interests included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, inquiry, human relationships, and bringing about radical change in society. He stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social. Learn more (Wikipedia).
In redecorating the Oval Office, newly-elected President Biden placed a bust of labor icon Cesar Chavez behind the Resolute Desk.
Chavez (1927-1993) co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union.
In his book American Legends (Bulfinch Press, 1992), Karsh wrote of Chavez: “He stood in the doorway – rooted in the earth – framed by the visual symbol of the farm workers union. Quiet and of deep moral strength, he has wrought a revolution in fair wages, health benefits, and education.”
Other busts on display in President Biden’s office include Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert F. Kennedy.
The French fashion designer Christian Dior was born on February 21, in 1905 (d. 1957). Karsh wrote: “…the only place where Dior would be photographed was his tiny private office which guards the designing and model room….I decided to portray him standing partially hidden behind a screen, only a portion of the face showing, with just one eye lighted and his finger to his lips enjoining silence and secrecy.”
Princess Grace is wearing Dior in her well-known portrait sitting with Karsh, and we work closely with the Musée Christian Dior.
Today marks the 35th Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law to create a federal holiday honoring the great man, and was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.
We are thrilled to have this portrait included in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s celebration of MLK, and in their Portraits of African Americans exhibition on Google’s Arts and Culture platform.
Please read Mr. Karsh’s comments on the civil rights leader.
Happy 84th birthday to American film, radio, television, and stage actress Margaret O’Brien who was born on this day, January 15, in 1937. a prolific career as a child actress in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the age of four, O’Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history. In her later career, she appeared on television, on stage, and in supporting film roles.
“Arguably her most memorable role was in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor.” For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar in 1944. Read more. (Wikipedia)
Congratulations to singer, songwriter, musician, and activist Joan Baez for her Kennedy Center Honor.
“The Kennedy Center Honors serves as a moment to celebrate the remarkable artists who have spent their lives elevating the cultural history of our nation and world,” Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein said in a press release. “Folk icon Joan Baez breathed new life into the genre and powered rock music’s turn toward social and political consciousness.”
Baez is one of a handful who were photographed for Look magazine for an article on people under 30. See who else was photographed.
The Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation came to fruition in 2019 as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the Canadian painter and sculptor’s work. The Foundation’s new website is now live and features Karsh’s portrait. This new site complements a website dedicated to the artist’s Catalogue raisonné in which our portrait is also featured.
A new British coin commemorating science fiction author H. G. Wells has been criticized for featuring multiple errors, including the decision to give his famous “tripod” machine from The War of the Worlds four legs! And the legend written around the rim of the coin, “GOOD BOOKS ARE THE WAREHOUSES OF IDEAS”, is not an actual quotation by Wells. And that isn’t the end of the errors. Read more (CNN)
The American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle, Dr. Melvin Calvin, died on this day, January 8, in 1997. With his colleagues Andrew Benson and James Bassham, they were awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Dr. Melvin Calvin featured as one of four scientists honored with a U.S. Postal Service stamp, in 2011. The Karsh portrait of Dr. Calvin features in the background. Karsh photographed Arthur Summerfield, 54th Postmaster General of the United States, in 1953. Summerfield served under Dwight D. Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961.
Before Jonas Salk’s vaccine was introduced in 1955, polio was considered one of the most serious public health problems in the world, and epidemics were increasingly devastating in the post-war United States. The 1952 U.S. epidemic, in which 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with some form of paralysis, was the worst polio outbreak in the nation’s history, and most of its victims were children.
News of the vaccine’s success was first made public on April 12, 1955. Salk was immediately hailed as a “miracle worker”, and chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution. An immediate rush to vaccinate began in both the United States and around the world. Many countries began polio immunization campaigns using Salk’s vaccine, including Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium. Less than 25 years later, domestic transmission of polio had been completely eliminated in the United States. Read more (Wikipedia)
Canadian financier and philanthropist Paul Desmarais was born on this day, January 4, in 1927. Four Canadian prime ministers, a former French president and five Quebec premiers were among those who attended a two-hour memorial for the business tycoon at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica when Desmarais died in 2013. PM Stephen Harper expressed his admiration for Desmarais and called him a humble, generous and unpretentious man. Read more (Canadian Business)
We say goodbye to 2020, and celebrate the 79th anniversary of the making of this portrait. On December 30, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a speech to the Canadian Parliament. Unbeknownst to Mr. Churchill, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King arranged for Karsh to take Churchill’s portrait immediately after the speech. For Mr. Karsh, the rest is history. Read more about the making of this photograph, and watch a video of Karsh and Morley Safer recreating it for CBS’ 60 Minutes. Also take a look at the frame that followed…
Yousuf Karsh was born on this day, December 23, in 1908. During his career he held 15,312 sittings, produced over 370,000 negatives, and left an indelible artistic and historic record of the men and women who shaped the twentieth century. Karsh kept a card file for every sitting, beginning in 1933 and running through to 1993, and the records have been transcribed and are searchable here on this website.
Get a glimpse behind the scenes of his six prolific decades in our Life in Images gallery.
Lumberjacks coming in from a hard day’s work in and around Lakehead, in the heart of Canada’s logging country, quickly shed layers of boots and wet garments.
Wishing everyone a safe, warm, and dry festive season.
In his early years of practice in the 1930s, Yousuf Karsh photographed the Canadian public: their weddings, pets, kids. When Karsh closed his studio in 1992, his negatives and work prints went to the Library and Archives Canada, (LAC), where they are safely housed and are accessible for research purposes. Some of Karsh’s earliest works have been scanned and they are often accompanied in the LAC database by their negatives. Here is an example of a wedding in 1937, “Wilson-Haddow” one of more than 200 weddings we have listed, and are searchable, here on the Karsh website.
A nice new addition to the digital archives is this 1973 portrait of German-born businessman and philanthropist Max Stern. Stern rebuilt his life in Canada after anti-Semitic persecution forced him to leave his native Germany in 1926. He made his name with his founding of what would become a large pet products manufacturer and real estate development company.
The world lost sitar master Ravi Shankar on this day, December 11, in 2012. In 1956, Shankar left his home of India and began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music, and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on Harrison helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in Western pop music in the latter half of the 1960s. Read more (Wikipedia)
Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who on this day, December 10, in 1950, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of the United Nations to broker peace between Israel and Egypt in 1949. He was the first African American to be so honored.
He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations and played a major role in numerous peacekeeping operations sponsored by the UN. In 1963, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy. Read more (Wikipedia)
On December 9, 1990, Lech Walesa won the Polish presidential election, defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates to become Poland’s first freely elected head of state in 63 years, and the first non-Communist head of state in 45 years. From early in his career, Walesa was interested in workers’ concerns and in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Although it was late in Mr. Karsh’s career, 1989 was still very prolific. See who else was photographed.
Hans Hartung died on this day, December 7, in 1989. He was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. Born in Germany in 1904, Hartung moved to Paris in the late 1920s, and was a decorated World War II veteran of the French Foreign Legion.