The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I premiered on this day, March 29, in 1951, at Broadway’s St. James Theatre. It ran for nearly three years, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history at the time, and it would go on to win the Tony Awards for Best Musical; Best Actress for Gertrude Lawrence, and Best Actor for Yul Brynner.

The King and I is the fifth musical by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II, who Karsh photographed together in 1950.

Karsh photographed Yul Brynner in 1956. See more.

Physicist Safi Bahcall’s new book Loonshots (St. Martin’s Press) “reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior and the challenges of nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of “phase transitions” Bahcall shows why teams, companies, and other mission-driven groups will suddenly change from embracing new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice.”

Humphrey Bogart illustrates the “transition from smooth flow to turbulent flow” in this fascinating book, whose subtitle is “How to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries.”

Read more.

On this day, March 27, in 1958, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev replaced Nicolay Bulganin as Soviet premier.

Karsh photographed Khrushchev in April, 1963, when the furs had been returned to storage. However, Karsh asked: “Mr. Khrushchev, I would like the biggest fur coat in Russia possible to photograph you in.” And to my delight, he gave the go-ahead signal and within half an hour after that a big fur coat was produced.”

Read more about Karsh and Khrushchev.

This portrait of Princess Grace dominates the cover of Australia’s Who magazine special collector’s edition.

See more photographs of Grace.

Eleanor Roosevelt was an American diplomat and activist who served as the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s four terms in office, making her the longest serving First Lady of the United States. Roosevelt then served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. She was vocal in her support of the civil rights movement. The Roosevelts (who were distant cousins) were married on this day, March 18, in 1905.

According to Wikipedia, the Roosevelts’ marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin’s controlling mother, Sara, and after Eleanor discovered her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, she resolved to seek fulfillment in leading a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with a paralytic illness in 1921, which cost him the normal use of his legs, and began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place.

Following Franklin’s election as Governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin’s public career in government, Roosevelt regularly made public appearances on his behalf, and as First Lady, while her husband served as President, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role of First Lady.

This portrait of René Lévesque, the 23rd Premier of Quebec (1976-1985), is included in a book about Canadian Supreme Court justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, (out now from University of British Columbia Press). Also included are Karsh’s portraits of Alice Desjardins, a judge of the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal; and one of Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

The Auckland Museum published a small guide to their collection curated by director David Gaimster, titled “Director’s Choice”. This Karsh portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary is in the Museum’s collection, and they reproduced it in the guide to illustrate a piece about Hillary’s diary entry for the 1953 Everest expedition – his diary being described as “possibly the greatest treasure in the Hillary Archive.”

See another portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary by Yousuf Karsh.

The John Buchan Story is a museum dedicated to the life, work and legacy of the novelist, historian, and politician John Buchan, also known as His Excellency The Right Honourable Lord Tweedsmuir. The organization recently acquired a First Nations cape and accompanying gauntlets owned by Buchan, and are using this photograph from 1936 as part of their exhibit.

John Buchan is a national figure within both a Scottish and UK context. Through his prolific writing and by his many and varied contributions to public life, he was a highly influential figure, particularly during the inter-war period. His final role as Governor General of Canada, and the popularity of film adaptations of his novel “The Thirty Nine Steps”, have also helped to give him an international reputation which continues to this day. As a novelist, historian, journalist, politician, soldier and public servant, his influence can be seen in numerous areas of the first half of the twentieth century.

Learn more about The John Buchan Story.

Learn more about Karsh and Buchan’s own rich history.

 

“American Portraits” is on view at The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY, now through May 5, 2019. Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Kirsty Buchanan gives an overview of the exhibition and Karsh’s contribution to the art world.

In 1945, Karsh became naturalized Canadian citizen number 10 and was given a passport. The Canadian Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, invited one representative from each of the 10 provinces to receive the first passports, nominating Karsh as the representative from Ontario. In 1995 Karsh was invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian passport; he was the only honoree still living.

Today is the Presidents’ Day federal holiday in the United States which is celebrated annually on the third Monday of February in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States.

Karsh photographed twelve United States Presidents, from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton. He also photographed many foreign presidents, and corporate presidents. A free-text search in our Sittings database returns all of them, from a 1936 sitting with Dr. Karl T. Compton, President, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, to Mr. Alonzo L. McDonald, President, Bendix Corporation, 1981.

On Presidents, from Regarding Heroes:

Yousuf Karsh had made formal portraits of all of the American presidents since Herbert Hoover, twelve in all. Now, early in the year 2001, at age ninety-two, he was frail and long retired when the staff of George W. Bush approached him. They wanted to fly the president to Boston, where Karsh had resided since closing his Ottawa studio nine years before. The newly elected leader would be at the photographer’s disposal, they promised, more so than was usual. Mrs. Karsh recounts that the president’s staff said to Jerry Fielder, the twenty-five-year primary assistant to Karsh who was handling the urgent request, that they would even be satisfied with a perfunctory portrait set up by the studio staff if Karsh would just release the shutter. This last effort at accommodation made them seem not only overly eager but also uninformed about what a Karsh portrait entailed.

It is understandable that Bush’s staff was anxious about not getting a sitting with the one photographer who had become a legend by recording those he personally considered to be the shapers of history and culture. To be among those Karsh included in his photographic pantheon and publications was an honor that dignitaries, political figures, and celebrities sought of him to the last days of his career. An additional attraction for Bush’s people must have been that Karsh was not a partisan portraitist, and thus there was an expectation that he would not infuse the image with a personal political judgment, even subliminally.

(Karsh) had become an institution in his own right, someone who was expected to participate in what had grown to be one of the many cultural expectations of the ritual of passage to the presidency.

The Rockwell Museum is the current host of “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits,” on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. Among their Karsh-related activities is a quiz: Which Karsh subject do you most identify with? Visit their exhibition page.

“Take the quiz to find out which Karsh subject you most identify with, then find your celebrity alter ego’s portrait. Does your result match up?”

Karsh photographed dozens of plays at the Dominion Drama Festival from 1933 to 1938. The Drama Festival was an organization in Canada that sought to promote amateur theater across the country. In 1935, he photographed René Arthur in the role of Prince Metternich in the play L’Aiglon, by Edmond Rostand.

This photograph of René Arthur is in the collection of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Arthur (1908-1972) had a productive career as a writer, playwright and radio and television host, but in the 1940s he was secretary to Liberal minister in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, Valmore Bienvenue and in 1960 he resumed public service and became deputy chief of the office of the Premier of Quebec, Jean Lesage. (geneanet)

On this day, February 11, in 1990, Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison.

Karsh photographed Mandela in June of 1990, during Mandela’s formal visit to the Canadian parliament. Mandela was vice-president of the African National Congress (ANC) at the time, and he addressed a joint session of the House of Commons and the Senate, the first time in four decades a non-head of state had been given the special privilege. Mandela praised Canada for supporting the anti-apartheid movement and asked the government not to lift trade sanctions on South Africa – a request then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proudly obliged. Canada lifted the sanctions in 1993, the year before Mandela became president.

Twenty years earlier, the country took a stand against apartheid when John Diefenbaker played a key role in having South Africa excluded from the Commonwealth. Read more.

See more Nelson Mandela by Karsh.

Ronald Reagan was born on this day, February 6, in 1911. After a career in radio and film, Reagan served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

Reagan was also photographed by Karsh in 1969 as Governor of the State of California, and in 1980 as President-Elect.

See contact sheets showing Karsh’s visit to the White House to photograph the President in January, 1982.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s traveling Karsh exhibition, “American Portraits”, opens at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY, on February 8, 2019. The exhibition includes 48 iconic portraits, including photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jonas Salk, Marian Anderson, Elizabeth Arden, I.M. Pei, Helen Keller, Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, and first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy. The curator of this exhibition was National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator of Photographs, Ann Shumard.

“American Portraits” will be on view from February 8, until May 5, 2019.

Jackie Robinson was born one hundred years ago today, January 31. Robinson is legendary in the United States for being the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. Karsh photographed Robinson in 1957, the year after Robinson had retired from the game.

Robinson also was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o’Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York.

Jamie Bernstein and Steve J. Sherman’s book Leonard Bernstein 100: The Masters Photograph the Maestro is out on the shelves now (Powerhouse Books, 2019). The book is chock full of personal letters, scores, as well as many photos, including this frame from Bernstein’s 1985 sitting with Karsh.

“Leonard Bernstein was constantly being photographed, but unlike most, he was photographed by some of the greatest visual masters of the 20th century, including Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ken Heyman, Yousuf Karsh, Stanley Kubrick, Gjon Mili, Arnold Newman, Ruth Orkin, Irving Penn, and W. Eugene Smith.

To mark his centennial, curator and photographer Steve J. Sherman and Jamie Bernstein, Lenny’s eldest daughter, present this remarkable collection of 100 iconic images, which tell the Maestro’s life story through the unique vantage point of these image-makers and their revelatory (and sometimes never-before-seen) photographs.

A foreword by Bernstein’s three children, along with a selection of Bernstein’s handwritten music sketches, letters, speeches and poems, further enhances this intimate journey into the life of an artist who changed the face of the 20th century.” (Powerhouse)

See another frame from the sitting.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year.

The idea of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday was promoted by labor unions in contract negotiations. After King’s death, U.S. Representative John Conyers (a Democrat from Michigan) and U.S. Senator Edward Brooke (a Republican from Massachusetts) introduced a bill in Congress to make King’s birthday a national holiday. The bill first came to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number needed for passage. Two of the main arguments mentioned by opponents were that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive, and that a holiday to honor a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition (King had never held public office). Only two other figures have national holidays in the U.S. honoring them: George Washington and Christopher Columbus.

Soon after, the King Center turned to support from the corporate community and the general public. The success of this strategy was cemented when musician Stevie Wonder released the single “Happy Birthday” to popularize the campaign in 1980 and hosted the Rally for Peace Press Conference in 1981. Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law.

Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East (both North Carolina Republicans) led opposition to the holiday and questioned whether King was important enough to receive such an honor.

President Ronald Reagan originally opposed the holiday, citing cost concerns. When asked to comment on Helms’ accusations that King was a communist, the president said “We’ll know in thirty-five years, won’t we?”, in reference to the eventual release of FBI surveillance tapes that had previously been sealed. But on November 2, 1983, Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King. The bill had passed the House of Representatives by a count of 338 to 90, a veto-proof margin. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986. Wikipedia.

The International Vladimir Nabokov Society has recently launched an extensive website, The Nabokovian, to celebrate the heritage of this great Russian-American writer. We worked with the society to ensure this portrait of Nabokov by Karsh from 1972 is included in the Nabokovian website’s photo gallery.

The Bauhaus was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught.

The UK’s Sunday paper The Observer published an article this weekend, Bauhaus at 100: what it means to me by Norman Foster, Margaret Howell and others in which architects, designers and other creatives talk about how its ideas have shaped their work.

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime.

An inquiry from a relative of one of the workers from Atlas Steel came in, and so we added a couple of images to the website. The American Publicity Director of Atlas Steels approached Mr. Karsh in 1950, saying “that for years I had been glorifying the great of this world… what about trying my hands at glorifying the humble ones of the earth.” Shortly afterwards, Karsh found himself in Welland, Ontario, at the Atlas Steels plant. He had never photographed in an industrial plant before. The images would become Atlas Steel’s 1951 Annual Report, and would join Karsh’s work with Ford of Canada and Sharon Steel in the book Industrial Images.

The official caption for this image read:
“When Karsh first saw George Guglielmo standing watching him with face protector uplifted he was reminded of an ancient Roman gladiator. George’s parents came, in fact, from a village near the Eternal City. In effect, he is an apprentice today following in the footsteps of his gigantic boss, ‘Tiny’ Stirtzinger, 1,000 ton headman.”

In the Atlas 1951 Annual Report Gugleilmo is described as having an almost medieval appearance, chosen by Karsh as it illustrated the “sturdy, independent character of a man who makes Atlas Steels.”

See more industrial images.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay on this day, January 17, in 1942. He converted to Islam after 1961 and in 1964 changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his “slave name”, to Muhammad Ali. Karsh said of his sitting:

“I photographed (Ali) in 1970, as part of a series of young people for ‘Look’ Magazine… Muhammad Ali arrived at my New York studio with a breathless young editor trailing behind. They had jogged together from the ‘Look’ offices, the young editor carrying Ali’s heavy portable telephone  which Ali said kept him in ‘constant contact with the world.’”

Read the rest of the Muhammad Ali story.

In an ArtMarket Insight, Artprice states: “After decades of inertia, the market for the great abstract artist Hans Hartung is gaining momentum thanks to support from leading galleries and museums.”

The article goes on to mention that “A major adept of ‘gestural’ painting in the 1920s and 30s (i.e. well before the great American ‘action’ paintings of Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell…), Hans Hartung (1904-1989) played a key role in the history of 20th century painting. However, after receiving full recognition during his lifetime (in the 60s and 70s), the German artist fell into relative market oblivion for roughly three decades. Today the amnesia concerning Hans Hartung’s work appears to be lifting and his work is attracting a lot of attention from important galleries and major cultural institutions.”

Apparently, Hans Hartung has never been in such demand. Read the rest of the article.

More Hans Hartung by Karsh.

American actress, singer, dancer and comedienne Carol Channing has died. Channing was photographed in April, 1956. Earlier that year, Karsh had photographed several Hollywood stars including Charlton Heston, Anita Ekberg, Joan Collins, and Audrey Hepburn.

Journalist Robert McGarvey wrote an article for Troy Media this week, reflecting on “the enormous contribution of newcomers to Canada.” It is Karsh’s immigration story that McGarvey uses to make his point.

Here are (Karsh’s) impressions of arriving in Canada, cold and alone as a youngster almost a century ago:

“On the stormy New Year’s Eve of 1924, the liner Versailles reached Halifax from Beirut. Her most excited passenger in the steerage class must have been an Armenian boy of 16 who spoke little French and less English. I was that boy…

“For the moment it was enough to find myself safe in Canada, the massacres, torture and the heartbreak of Armenia behind me; to feel, even then, that I was coming home.”

These are stirring turns of phrase given the difficulties this young boy faced in escaping the horrors of genocide and the obvious challenges he would continue to face as a stranger in Canada.

The fact that Karsh felt at home so immediately speaks to a special quality of Canadian officialdom: never at a loss when it comes to completing their paperwork, these Canadian bureaucrats are a beacon of light compared with most border officials.

That young boy not only adjusted to his new country, he thrived. He became, in time, one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Karsh was an international sensation, producing iconic photo portraits of world figures during and after the Second World War.

Read the rest of Mr. McGarvey’s column for Troy Media.

Read Karsh’s biography.

New evidence has emerged linking an RAF veteran to the death in 1961 of the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld in a mysterious plane crash in southern Africa.

In the UK Sunday publication the Observer, reporting team Emma Graham-Harrison, Andreas Rocksen and Mads Brügger write:

Jan van Risseghem has been named as a possible attacker before, but has always been described simply as a Belgian pilot. The Observer can now reveal that he had extensive ties to Britain, including a British mother and wife, trained with the RAF and was decorated by Britain for his service in the second world war. Film-makers investigating the 1961 crash for a documentary, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, have found a friend of Van Risseghem who claimed the pilot confessed to shooting down the UN plane. They also gathered testimony from another pilot that undermines one of his alibis for that night. Read the rest of the article.

 

By request from a client in the Netherlands, these two portraits of American fiber artist Lenore Tawney have been freshly scanned.

Tawney began weaving in 1954. Her early tapestries combined traditional with experimental, using an ancient Peruvian gauze weave technique and inlayed colorful yarns to create a painterly effect that appeared to float in space. Because of her unorthodox weaving methods, Tawney was spurned by both the craft and art worlds, but her distinct style attracted many devoted admirers. She is considered to be a groundbreaking artist for the elevation of craft processes to fine art status, two communities which were previously mutually exclusive. (Wikipedia)

Karsh photographed Tawney in November, 1959, for House Beautiful. He photographed several others for the magazine in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, including Frank Lloyd Wright.

On January 10, 1920, the League of Nations was formally established when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, took effect. When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down and its headquarters in Geneva remained empty throughout the war.

The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1939. The text of the “Declaration by United Nations” was drafted at the White House on December 29, 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins. (Wikipedia).

Karsh photographed several Secretaries General and others with roles at the United Nations. See the Sittings.

Richard Nixon was born on this day, January 9, 1913. This double portrait was made and published in January 1969 as Nixon took office as the 37th president of the United States.

Nixon of course is notorious for resigning before he could be impeached. It took a long time for the media and for public opinion to come around to Nixon’s culpability as is explored in depth in Slate‘s podcast “Slow Burn“(2017). Journalist and podcast host Leon Neyfakh wrote:

Why are we revisiting Watergate now? The connections between the Nixon era and today are obvious enough. But to me, the similarity that’s most striking is not between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon (although they’re both paranoid, vengeful, and preoccupied with “loyalty”), or their alleged crimes (although they both involved cheating to win an election), or the legal issues in the two cases (although they both center on obstruction of justice).

Rather, it’s that people who lived through Watergate had no idea what was going to happen from one day to the next, or how it was all going to end. I recognize that feeling. The Trump administration has made many of us feel like the country is in an unfamiliar, precarious situation.

Read more from Leon Neyfakh.

See the Nixon Sittings.

Hot off the scanner today is this beauty of Adolph Gottlieb in his New York studio. Born in 1903, Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and printmaker. In 1963 he became the first American artist to be awarded the Gran Premio of the São Paulo Bienale in Brazil. In 1968, the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum in New York collaborated on a retrospective exhibition of his art that filled both museums. In between, in 1966, he was photographed by Mr. Karsh.

In 1921, at the age of 39, Franklin Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness, believed at the time to be polio, and his legs became permanently paralyzed. On this day, January 3, in 1938, Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes), leading to the development of polio vaccines. Roosevelt’s leadership in the March of Dimes is one reason he is commemorated on the American dime. (Wikipedia)

Read about Dr. Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine sponsored by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

Roosevelt became 32nd president of the United States in 1933.

December 21, 2018, marked 50 years since Apollo 8 launched into space. During this mission, William Anders took the spectacular photograph that came to be known as “Earthrise.” NBC’s TODAY show licensed the above image of Anders for an interview they held with him that aired December 20.

Anders loaded his camera with color film, put on a telephoto lens and started shooting – worrying all the while that he might not get the shot he was looking for. “When I was in high school, I had a 35-millimeter camera with roll-up film in it, and actually tried to develop it a little bit myself, which was usually a failure,” he told Smith. “But, you know, I knew the basics of f-stops and shutter speeds and that kind of thing. Could hardly call myself a photographer.”

Read more.

Karsh photographed the three Apollo 8 astronauts, William Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, in April, 1969. (The image is yet to be digitized.)

Library and Archives Canada added many Karsh images to their database this year, including this wintery photo. Photograph taken in Quebec. NFB Photo Story: Annual Ritual in the Woods.

Have a sweet new year, from all of us at the estate of Yousuf Karsh.

Royal Canadian Mint and the Estate of Yousuf Karsh are excited to announce this new limited edition silver coin available for sale as of August 7, 2018. We worked closely together and with the help of our colleagues at the National Archives in Ottawa, Canada, who provided historical information about Mr. Karsh’s work with the British Royals.

It is the image of grace, dignity, and poise. Taken at Clarence House in London, the 1951 portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) by Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) shows a youthful princess on the eve of a royal visit to Canada and on the cusp of history, for she would succeed to the throne less than seven months later. As a special tribute, your 10 oz. coin is the largest portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to ever appear on one of our coins. Karsh’s original photograph is expertly reproduced in exquisite detail on the engraved reverse, where multiple finishes mimic the interplay between light and shadow that is synonymous with portraits by “Karsh of Ottawa,” who is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.

The packaging alone is exquisite, the coin itself is breathtaking.

Read more about Mr. Karsh, Princess Elizabeth, and order your coin!

Nobel Prizes are generally awarded today, December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death (in 1896). In 1938, Pearl Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.” NobelPrize.org.

Of course, Mr. Karsh photographed many Nobel Prize winners including the first African-American winner, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, a professor of government at Harvard University who won the Peace Prize. See information about the Nobel Sittings.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits” has arrived in Florida. The Lowe Art Museum in Coral Gables is hosting the show from now through January 20, 2019. The 48 Karsh portraits on view include First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Humphrey Bogart, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jonas Salk, Marian Anderson, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Arden, and I. M. Pei.

There is a wonderful review by Farah Nayeri in the New York Times :

“Not everyone in Britain is familiar with the name Yousuf Karsh. Yet just about everyone in Britain has carried his most celebrated image around in their pocket, wallet or purse. Mr. Karsh was a portrait photographer who in 1941 took what became the most famous picture of Prime Minister Winston Churchill: the one where he stands, hand on hip, glaring at the lens – and the one that appears on Britain’s 5-pound note. It was taken while Churchill was in Canada, during an improvised shoot.” Read the rest of the article.

On January 6, 1982, Yousuf Karsh photographed George H. W. Bush, Vice President of the United States at the time. Also present, and to be photographed, was Bush’s dear friend and colleague, James Baker, the White House Chief of Staff. When George Bush died last week, it was James Baker who was by his side. The New York Times covers their very close relationship in “I Love You, Too’: George Bush’s Final Days”

The Karsh archives are packed full of correspondence between Karsh and his subjects. Here is an insight into the communications that went on around the sitting, between Bush, Baker, and Bush’s personal photographer, Cynthia Johnson. We hope to share Johnson’s photographs of the three together soon.

See portraits of James Baker and George H. W. Bush

Here are some of the letters and notecards:

George Herbert Walker Bush has died.

Bush served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. He had served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. As a member of the Republican Party, he had previously been a Representative, Ambassador and Director of Central Intelligence Agency.