Evening Attire

James VanDerZee, Evening Attire, 1922, gelatin silver print, sheet: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1994.57.3

Artwork Details

Title: Evening Attire
Artist: James VanDerZee
Date: 1922
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.)
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Highlights: African American Art
Subjects: African American
Dress — accessory — hat
Figure female — full length
Dress — ceremonial — formal dress
Object — flower
Object — art object — sculpture
Architecture Interior — studio
Object Number: 1994.57.3
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1994.57.3

Artwork Description

VanDerZee is best known for the studio portraits he made in Harlem after World War I. His sensitivity and the pride he felt from living and working within the community are clear in elegant and graceful images that challenged prevailing stereotypes. The sitter in Evening Attire is dressed in a beaded evening gown, an elegant, full hat, and a foxtail wrap; she holds a spray of flowers. Her stance, coupled with the backdrop, the brocade table cover, and a decorative figurine, evokes formal Victorian home interiors seen in Edwardian portraiture and nineteenth century cartes de visite, the small photographs people used as calling cards in the late nineteenth century.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012