Having debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2017, director Stanley Tucci’s biopic of Alberto Giacometti, “Final Portrait,” is now on wide release. The film stars Geoffrey Rush in the title role.

In other news, Giacometti’s studio is “returning to Montparnasse in Paris, more than half a century after the Swiss artist died and left the tiny space packed with sculptures and drawings. His original studio at rue Hippolyte-Maindron no longer exists, but the Giacometti Fondation is painstakingly recreating the space as he left it in 1966 as the centerpiece of the new Giacometti Institute, which is due to open on June 21 in an historic building in the same neighborhood.” (Artnet)

 

Each year at this time, the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. commemorates the 1912 gift to the city of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo.

As a democrat, a pacifist, and an internationalist, (Ozaki) represented the earliest stirrings of democracy in his country and, though often jailed, sometimes exiled, and constantly threatened with assassination, he never wavered for a moment in his faith, or in his love for America which, as he said, stood for everything he had sought in his own country.

It was with a sense of reverence, therefore, that I approached the old man – he was in his nineties at the time, in 1950, and had just concluded a tour of the United States. The Dewitt Wallaces, of Reader’s Digest, had asked me to photograph him and the sitting took place in New York in the Waldorf Towers. A wonderful gentleness and an almost saintly look brooded on Ozaki’s face. But they were not easy to catch on film.

Evidently he heard my words with difficulty. His daughter acted as a competent interpreter and as she leaned towards his ear to transmit some amusing remark his countenance lighted up with an oddly childlike expression. It was then I made my picture.

Ozaki lived on to the age of ninety-five. I never saw him again, but whenever I am in Washington at blossom time, and loo at the Japanese cherry trees there, I remember that he gave them, when he was Mayor of Tokyo, to the American people… a living memorial to his faith in human freedom.

From Portraits of Greatness.

On Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, Marian Anderson performed a free open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. Anderson continued to break barriers for black artists in the United States, becoming the first black person, American or otherwise, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955.

At Eleanor Roosevelt’s behest, President Roosevelt and Walter White, then-executive secretary of the NAACP, and Anderson’s manager, impresario Sol Hurok, persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was performed on Easter Sunday, April 9, and Anderson was accompanied, as usual, by (Finnish pianist Kosti) Vehanen. They began the performance with a dignified and stirring rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. The event attracted a crowd of more than 75,000 of all colors and was a sensation with a national radio audience of millions. (Wikipedia)

See more Marian Anderson.

See Karsh’s portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt.

See Karsh’s portrait of Harold Ickes.

The National Geographic television channel will release a second season of its biographical “Genius” series on April 24th, 2018. Pablo Picasso is played by Antonio Banderas in this six-parter following on from last year’s “Genius: Einstein” who was played by Geoffrey Rush.

See more Picasso by Karsh.

See Einstein by Karsh.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on this day, April 4, in 1968.  President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for the civil rights leader. Beginning in 1971, some states established annual holidays to honor King. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. Following President George H. W. Bush’s 1992 proclamation, the holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.,  is observed on the third Monday of January each year, near the time of King’s birthday.

Read more about Karsh’s sitting with Martin Luther King.

See Lyndon B. Johnson by Karsh.

See Ronald Reagan by Karsh.

See George H. W. Bush by Karsh.

Almost forty years ago Karsh photographed Joan Baez for her 1979 album “Honest Lullaby”, and the image above featured as the full cover. Baez announced this year that she is releasing her final studio album, “Whistle Down the Wind”, and hitting the road for the last time, on an eight-month tour.

Check out her Instagram feed for some fun recent photos.

See another Joan Baez photograph by Yousuf Karsh.

The 38th edition of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers’ “Photography Show” will be held April 5-8, 2018, at Pier 94 in New York. More than 100 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries will present a range of museum-quality work including contemporary, modern, and 19th century photographs, photo-based art, video, and new media.

For the second year there will also be a program of photographer documentaries – shorts and features – curated by award-winning filmmaker Mary Engel, director of Ruth Orkin and Morris Engel Film and Photo Archives. We are pleased that Mary chose to include “Karsh is History”, a documentary by Joseph Hillel and Ian McLaren of Grand Nord that was released in conjunction with Karsh’s Centennial, in 2008.

Our colleagues at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. launched their “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits” exhibition in 2014 in celebration of a major gift to its collection of around 100 Karsh photographs. The exhibition is now traveling the United States: currently at the Jimmy Carter* Presidential Library and Museum Atlanta, GA, through May 20, 2018, it will then move to The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH, from June 20 to September 16, 2018.

The broad variety of subjects on view includes Martin Luther King, Jr., Marx Brothers, Tennessee Williams, Jackie Robinson, Joan Baez, Jim Henson, and this wonderful photograph from Karsh’s 1949 sitting with Joan Crawford.

Update: October 18, 2018 to January 20, 2019 at Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL

February 8, 2019 to May 5, 2019 at The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY

*See the Karsh portrait of Jimmy Carter.

Stephen Sondheim was born on this day, March 22, in 1930. An American composer and lyricist, Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer, including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Karsh photographed Sondheim twice in 1986; it was prolific year that included sittings with other musical luminaries, such as Kenny Rogers and Dave Brubeck.

John Updike was born on this day, March 18, in 1932. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author published around 60 books including novels, children’s books, and poetry, as well as writing for various magazines.

Updike was photographed by Karsh in 1984 for Esquire Magazine. See other people Karsh photographed for Esquire.

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission is celebrating Women’s History Month with women who were pioneers in American diplomacy during the Eisenhower administration. One of those women is Clare Boothe Luce. Luce was a former Congresswoman and was the first woman appointed as a U.S. ambassador to a major power when President Eisenhower appointed her as U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 1953.

She also served as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil for four days in 1959 under President Eisenhower. In 1979, she became the first woman to be awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1983, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom becoming the first Congresswoman to receive the award.

Also a versatile author, Luce is best known for her 1936 hit play The Women, which had an all-female cast.

As part of a five-year collaboration with Library and Archives Canada, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary will host a series of exhibitions drawn from the national portrait collection. The inaugural exhibition features works by Emily Carr, Norval Morriseau, Yousuf Karsh, Alma Duncan and many others.

Eric Volmers writes in the Calgary Herald: “Photographer Yousuf Karsh, best known for his portraits of politicians and celebs, took what must be one of the first selfies in 1951, an experimental work shot through a reflective orb from his garden and depicts the artist behind a camera with his face completely obscured.”

“The Artist’s Mirror” opened on March 10 and runs until January 6, 2019. Read the article in the Herald, and visit the Glenbow’s website to see more of the wonderful portraits in this exhibition.

On this day, March 14, in 1879, Albert Einstein was born.

At Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, I found Einstein a simple, kindly, almost childlike man, too great for any of the postures of eminence. One did not have to understand his science to feel the power of his mind or the force of his personality. He spoke sadly, yet serenely, as one who had looked into the universe, far past mankind’s small affairs. When I asked him what the world would be like were another atomic bomb to be dropped, he replied wearily, ‘Alas, we will no longer be able to hear the music of Mozart.’

See more Albert Einstein.

Read the post Canada Mint Celebrates Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with Karsh Portrait.

“Mr. Givenchy came to the attention of the young Ms. Hepburn, a rising star who was so charmed by his youthful designs that she insisted that he make her clothes for nearly all of her movies, and help mold her sylphlike image in the process.”

The New York Times obit of Givenchy goes on to say:

“For the duration of their partnership, Ms. Hepburn said it was Mr. Givenchy’s designs that gave her the confidence to play her parts, or to step onstage before thousands of people to promote a charity. But “when I first went to Hubert” in 1953, she told Vogue, “I was still in homemade dresses.””

See more Audrey Hepburn by Karsh.

On International Women’s Day we are honoring Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig, ground-breaking American cardiologist. Dr. Taussig developed the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with anoxemia or ‘blue baby syndrome.’  In 1965, Dr. Helen Taussig was the first woman to become the president of the American Heart Association. We understand from a relative that “while she was the first cardiologist president of the AHA, the fact of which she was far more proud was that she was the first pediatrician president of the AHA.”

At the time of this Sitting Dr. Taussig was Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

On this day, March 8, in 1971, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier engaged in the “Fight of the Century” at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Ali was returning to the ring after three years having lost his license when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali was defeated but would go on to beat Frazier the next two times they would meet.

Karsh photographed Muhammad Ali for Look Magazine‘s “Under 30” series. See who else he photographed.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum has digitized a series of contact sheets showing Karsh’s visit to the White House to photograph the President in January, 1982, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the work that went into producing these photographs.

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

American evangelical Christian William Franklin Graham Jr. has died.

Graham was a spiritual adviser to American presidents and provided spiritual counsel for every president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. He was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (one of Graham’s closest friends) and Richard Nixon. He insisted on racial integration for his revivals and crusades in 1953 and invited Martin Luther King Jr. to preach jointly at a revival in New York City in 1957. Graham bailed King out of jail in the 1960s when King was arrested in demonstrations. (Wikipedia)

See our post about the other subjects Karsh photographed who feature in “The Crown.”

The United Kingdom is experiencing a chicken-related “fiasco” as Kentucky Fried Chicken’s supplier fails to make deliveries to KFC restaurants across the country.

Karsh photographed Colonel Harland Sanders twice, in 1972 and ’73.

This tear sheet, a clipping from Vanity Fair which came in from the family of photographer Wayne Miller, speaks for itself.

In Karsh: Beyond the Camera David Travis wrote that Karsh was commissioned to photograph Steichen during the Second World War, when Steichen was a naval commander. “The prospect of photographing such a giant was awesome. I was so tense and nervous that the first unsatisfactory result made me timorously request a second sitting, to which a patient and understanding Steichen acquiesced.

Karsh believed that no photographer was more talented, creative or influential than Edward Steichen. “It was like necessary food to turn his pages in Vanity Fair for inspiration.” Karsh first met Steichen in 1936 during a visit to New York City…. Karsh’s first portrait of Steichen was taken years later in Washington, D.C. while Steichen was serving his country again in another world war. They became closer in the mid-1960s. By this time, Steichen had suffered two strokes and married his third wife, a woman fifty-five years his junior. He had retired to Umpawaug, his Connecticut house and acreage where the Karshs were invited as house guests.”

Edward Steichen by Yousuf Karsh.

On this day, February 14, in 1929, Sir Alexander Fleming first published his discovery of penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. 

Alexander Fleming was photographed by Karsh in July, 1954, likely at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London. The laboratory in which Fleming discovered and tested penicillin is preserved there as the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum.

That month Karsh also photographed Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Augustus John, Benjamin Britten, a host of actors, and many others.

Jean Monnet was a French political economist and diplomat, and is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union. We are newly associated with Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe – The Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe – an organization supporting initiatives dedicated to the construction of European unity.

Jean Monnet was photographed in 1965 in France in the same week that Karsh photographed Joan Miro, Francois Mauriac, Man Ray and several others. Karsh had photographed Monnet in 1949 when the latter was the French Under Secretary of State.

Barbara Ann Scott was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion (1944–46, 48) in ladies’ singles.

Scott is the only Canadian to have won the Olympic ladies’ singles gold medal, the first North American to have won three major titles in one year and the only Canadian to have won the European Championship (1947–48). During her forties she was rated among the top equestrians in North America. She received many honours and accolades, including being made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991 and a member of the Order of Ontario in 2008. (Wikipedia)

Karsh photographed Scott on four separate occasions.

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

Karsh photographed Mandela in June of that year. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney greeted Mandela at the airport and accompanied him to the Chateau Laurier. “We were waiting in the lobby and the introductions were made. When the session started an hour later, Mandela was warm and friendly but obviously very tired. Yousuf then told him a story about Pope John XXIII. He had asked the Pontiff, “How many people work in the Vatican?” The Pope smiled and replied, “About half.” Mandela looked a little blank. Suddenly he got the joke, slapped the table, and roared with laughter. And, everything about the sitting changed.” Jerry Fielder, Curator.

See more Nelson Mandela by Karsh.

The Bodleian Libraries form the largest UK university library system, with more than 12 million printed items, 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections, and the Taylor Institution Library is a Bodleian Libraries weblog.

In celebration of the UK’s LGBT History Month, Richard Bruce Parkinson, professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford, writes about French novelist and essayist Marguerite Yourcenar’s essay ‘Le cerveau noir de Piranèse (The dark brain of Piranesi)’, using this portrait of Yourcenar to illustrate.

Read ‘A personal view: Yourcenar, Piranesi and Egypt‘ by Richard Bruce Parkinson on the Taylor Institution Library weblog.

See more portraits of Marguerite Yourcenar.

We received an email about this photograph from a man hoping we could help identify the subject. After some pondering of the handwriting, we searched on this website for the name Folsom and found ‘Frank M. Folsom, Esq., President, Radio Corporation of America, RCA.’ An image search on Google confirmed the subject of this portrait is indeed Frank Folsom, and the signature becomes more apparent. If you think you know who Ray O’Connell might have been, feel free to drop us a line!

An update from our friends at the Andrei Sakharov Center. The Center licensed an image for use at the Sakharov Memorial Concert in December, 2016. An Andrei Sakharov Research Center for Democratic Development has recently been established and will use a Karsh portrait on their new website, and on invitations to promote their events. Writing about the portrait, Professor Robert van Voren told me “… it is the best photo that visualizes the humanity of Sakharov and at the same time is the face that most people remember. A lot of photos are from the 1970s and that is not the Sakharov people relate to. Karsh’s photo is exactly the one that fits… it is made in such a way that he almost looks at you and communicates with you.”

Sakharov was a Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Read more about him.

Fashion-industry trade journal Women’s Wear Daily reviewed “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style” which is on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, through April 1, 2018. Estrellita Karsh shares her recollections in the article.

“Estrellita Karsh, the wife of the esteemed portrait photographer Yousuf, believes her husband mentioned how the artist wore couture made by Christian Dior. In 1956, Karsh traveled to New Mexico to shoot O’Keeffe. That portrait hangs near the entrance to what used to be her Abiquiu home, which is now a museum run by the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation.

“She really presents herself in many areas – in women’s rights, women’s independence. Taking herself to the desert and the fact that she was a schoolteacher who came to New York to a gallery that was in itself revolutionary. That was very, very push-the-envelope,” Karsh said. “She crafted her own image and the clothes were part of it. In this sense, the clothes not only made the man, they made the woman, or she made the clothes [making] the woman. So no stylist dressed her.”

Karsh added, “She didn’t have to do this. If she had worn slippers and a nightgown, her art would have been wonderful. But look at what she did with her clothes. Her clothes seemed so carefree, but they weren’t – they were calculated.”

Estrellita Karsh once caught a glimpse of the artist years ago during a salute to Pablo Casals at Carnegie Hall, where “100 cellists from all over the world had dropped whatever they were doing to come in his honor.” Karsh said she told her husband, “Look at this woman. She’s so beautiful.” He said, ‘That’s Georgia O’Keeffe.’…She was beautiful as a person, not a movie star but this was a presence – great energy.””

Read the rest of the article.

See more Karsh portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Norman Mailer was born on this day, January 31, in 1923. Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist.

“I hope you can spend the evening,” was Norman Mailer’s greeting. “I’m planning to cook dinner for you.” That was our gracious introduction to the enfant terrible of American letters, the man whose self-advertised penchant for violent excess had caused more than one qualm as we planned this visit…

Our visit, far from stormy, proved a warm, intimate family occasion. I hope that my portrait has caught both the restlessness and the gentle concern of this creative American, innovative in his art yet so protective when we left that he drove miles ahead of us in his car to make sure we were on the right road.

Excerpt from Karsh Portraits.

45 years ago today, January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court made its decision that a right to privacy extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. Justice William Joseph Brennan Jr. was serving on the court when it issued its decision with a 7-to-2 majority vote in favor of Roe.

Brennan served from 1956 to 1990.

See a list of other Supreme Court Justices photographed by Karsh.

On this day, January 22, in 1973, former US President Lyndon Baines Johnson died of a heart attack at the age of 64. Johnson served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He was photographed by Karsh as Senator Johnson in 1960, and again in 1963, soon after Johnson was sworn in as President in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

See more LBJ.

Katharine Graham (1917-2001) was an American publisher who led The Washington Post for more than two decades, overseeing the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Graham features in Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, “The Post”. “With help from editor Ben Bradlee, Graham races to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spans three decades and four U.S. presidents. Together, they must overcome their differences as they risk their careers – and very freedom – to help bring long-buried truths to light.”

The fiftieth issue of the John Buchan Society’s Journal, was published at the end of 2017 and features an essay by our Curator, Jerry Fielder, about the warm and fruitful relationship between John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada from 1935-1940), and Yousuf Karsh.

In 1935, the paths of two great men crossed in a way that would have a lasting impact on the legacy of them both. The career of one, Yousuf Karsh, was on the ascent. In six years he would take a portrait of Winston Churchill that would launch his international fame and lead to his success as a master portrait photographer for the next six decades. The career of the other, John Buchan, would come to a sudden end five years later when he lost his life after a tragic fall.

For Karsh, this association honed his interpersonal and professional skills and expanded his clientele to those who wanted to have their portrait taken by the man who had earned the honor of “Appointment to Their Excellencies, The Governor-General and Lady Tweedsmuir.” It was through Lord Tweedsmuir that Karsh met and formed a close friendship with Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, and it was through Mackenzie King that Karsh was invited to photograph Winston Churchill in 1941. Each door opened another. However, it was Karsh’s talent more than his connections that made this possible, and Lord Tweedsmuir was one of the first to appreciate his artistic gifts.

Read the whole article here.

See more about their many sittings.

A Churchill presentation ceremony was held at the British Official Residence in Moscow in December. During his visit to Russia, Boris Johnson unveiled an original Karsh photograph of Churchill. The Churchill photo was taken in 1941 and was a gift by the Karsh Estate to the British Official Residence in recognition of Mr. and Mrs. Karsh’s visit to the Soviet Union in 1963. The photograph will hang in the “Churchill Bedroom” of the British Official Residence.

The book being held by Foreign Secretary Johnson is the 2014 biography he wrote of Churchill entitled “The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History.”

Actress Peggy Cummins, best known for her performance as a trigger-happy femme fatale who robs banks with her lover in Joseph H. Lewis’s Gun Crazy (1949), died late last year at the age of 92, in London.

The subject in the negative Karsh is holding up remained a mystery for many years before we learned it was Peggy Cummins, who was photographed in 1946 for LIFE Magazine.

Read her obituary in the New York Times.

On this day, January 4, in 1974, President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. Nixon would resign from office in disgrace eight months later.

Karsh photographed Nixon as Senator (1952), Vice President (1957), and President-Elect (1969). He photographed Pat Nixon alone in 1954, and with her husband in 1969.

During wartime, Canadian retailers did their best to support the war effort at home by selling war bonds and supporting enlisted staff. “Of a total of 1,703 Simpsons employees who enlisted for military duty, 85 were killed in action, and only 583 returned to work at Simpsons after the war.” (Read more on Hudson’s Bay History).

A hat tip to Instagram user vanwartime who is publishing imagery related to Vancouver, BC, during the World Wars and who shared this with us, asking if there is a record of the names of the subjects. We suggest contacting our colleagues at the Library and Archives for more information.

Mr. & Mrs. C. L. Burton, President of the Robert Simpson Co. Ltd. and his wife, were also photographed in 1943.

Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Art, a sister museum of the MFA, Boston, is currently planning its exhibition “Happiness, In Pursuit of Happiness” for later this year and will include this wonderful portrait of William Holder, a sailmaker of some 60 years, in his loft in St. John, New Brunswick.

A controversy surrounding an exhibition in Düsseldorf arose recently and led to the cancellation of “Max Stern: From Dusseldorf to Montreal,” about the famed Jewish art dealer and the restitution of paintings that the Nazi Gestapo forced him to sell in 1937.

Canada’s Globe and Mail published a story and the National Portrait Gallery kindly shared a copy of this photograph from Stern’s 1973 sitting.

Read more about why the exhibition was cancelled.

Opening on the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, this exhibition presents a selection of Inuit prints from the collection of renowned portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh and his wife Estrellita, both longtime supporters of the MFA. Included are works by key Inuit artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Agnes Nanogak, Jessie Oonark, Pudlo Pudlat and Lucy Qinnuayuak. The prints come largely from the printmaking cooperative at Cape Dorset, north of Hudson Bay, where printmaking was introduced around 1959. Most are stone-cuts, handprinted from blocks of soapstone in which the images are carved in relief. The works are organized thematically, with sections focusing on family and daily life; hunting; shamans and myths; and tradition and the incursion of the modern world. In addition to the prints, the exhibition features a number of small-scale sculptures, and is accompanied by a visitor guide, available for free in the gallery. “Follow the North Star: Inuit Art from the Collection of Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh” is supported by TD Bank. Additional support from the Consulate General of Canada in Boston.

The exhibition is on view from July 1 – December 31, 2017.

See Karsh’s portrait of the artist Kenojuak Ashevak.