Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964

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Go directly to the collection, Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964 can be used to learn about artistic movements and individual artists through research projects and comparative exercises. Through comparison, students may also learn to perceive change and continuity through time and understand the techniques by which a photographer conveys meaning in portraits. Finally, with this collection, students can gain a multi-faceted understanding of the African-American migration of the 1920s and explore the issue of America's cultural contribution.

Because the collection's photographs were taken over a period of approximately thirty years, students can use them to trace changes and continuity through time. Have them consider what changes they might expect to observe in Van Vechten's portraits and articulate this in a written hypotheses. Then, they can search the collection, organizing images by date, and determine whether this evidence corroborates or invalidates their hypotheses. Some of the changes they may want to consider include changes in fashion, in costumes and set design, in the photographs' backgrounds, and the people's poses. Ask them to answer the following questions:

Portrait of Bertha Case, 1933.

Portrait of Ivie Jackman, 1962.

• Did the evidence prove or disprove your hypothesis?
• Were you surprised by what you found? Why or why not?
• What changes are observable in these portraits? What do you think caused these changes?
• If the pictures did not show changes that you expected to find, how might you account for their absence? Would you attribute this to your own assumptions or to the collection?

As white families moved from cities to suburbs and the advent of World War I created a shortage of labor in northern cities, African Americans began to migrate north from their southern rural homes. During the 1920s, 1.5 million African Americans migrated north in hope of employment and relief from the prejudice that oppressed them so severely in the South. Van Vechten's many portraits of African-American performers, writers, and musicians taken in New York City reflect his interest in African Americans and the arts, but they also reflect the growing presence of African Americans in northern cities resulting from the mass migration of the 1920s. More than this, these portraits also document the impact of this migration in popularizing African-American artistic movements, such as jazz, the blues, and the Harlem Renaissance. Students can use this collection to gain a multi-faceted understanding of this mass migration by browsing the Subject Index and the Occupational Index.

Portrait of Langston Hughes, 1936.

Students can supplement their understanding of the causes and consequences of this migration with information from other American Memory collections. Search on migration in The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920 for newspaper articles that express contemporary opinions about the migration. Search on Harlem and Chicago in American Life Histories, 1936-1940 for accounts of what life was like for people as they settled in these urban centers. To see how African-American art forms changed with popularization, students can compare early blues music found in Southern Mosaic with blues music from the late twentieth century, or search on jazz in American Memory for materials to compare with contemporary jazz.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation

		Webster defines a portrait as "a pictorial representation of a person usually showing his face." But some of Van Vecthen's portraits, like this one of Rose Covarrubias, don't even offer a good view of the person's face. Why did he do this? How does that make for a good representation of a person? Is it a good representation of a person? Would you even call that a portrait? What would you call it? Students can develop their visual literacy by exploring these and other questions as they compare Van Vechten's photographs.
		Portrait of Rose Covarrubias, 1932.

The above photograph may not seem to offer a good pictorial representation of Rose Covarrubias, but what does it do? If Rose Covarrubias doesn't seem to be the subject of the photograph what is? If she is the subject, what does this photograph tell you about her and how? Have students consider other portraits with these questions. It may help them to think of the photographs in terms of the techniques that Van Vechten used, including the use of props, of light and shadow, background and setting, pose and expression, distance, movement, and composition (that is the arrangement of shapes and lines in the frame). Ask students to identify what techniques Van Vechten used and how they influence what one sees and thinks about the person depicted.

Portrait of Maudelle Bass, and Lewayne Kennard . . . 1940.

Portrait of Elsie Houston, 1940.

Portrait of Francis Lederer, 1942.

Portrait of Marguerite d'Alvarez, 1933[8?].

Portrait of Bessie Smith, 1936.

Portrait of Paul Taylor, in Episodes, New York City Ballet, 1960.

Portrait of Giuseppe Orioli, Florence, 1935.

Another way students can appreciate Van Vechten's volition is to compare how he photographed people of different professions, using the Occupational Index. Or they can compare his portraits with those of William P. Gottlieb in Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz and Robert Runyon's portraits in The South Texas Border, 1900-1920.

Historical Issue Analysis and Decision Making

This collection documents Americans grappling with the question of their country's cultural contribution to the world in the early twentieth century. Van Vechten's portraits of expatriates such as Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright, and Henry Miller evidence one group's faith in Europe as the cultural center of the world and its dissatisfaction with American culture. However, these portraits also document the rise of New York City as an international cultural center and the growth of artistic movements rooted in America, such as jazz, the blues, and the Harlem Renaissance. Students can use this collection to learn more about the different sides to the issue of America's cultural contribution, study the history of this issue in other sources, and form some conclusions of their own about the value of American culture. Helpful books for older students include Malcolm Cowley's Exhile's Return and Michael Kammen's Mystic Chords of Memory. Students can use the following questions in their study.

Portrait of Henry Miller, 1940.

• How do you define something as "American"? Is this a legitimate or helpful distinction?
• Why were Modernist expatriates dissatisfied with American culture in the inter-war years? Who else in American history believed in the cultural superiority of Europe and why?
• How did American artists and intellectuals of the nineteenth century feel about America's ability to produce unique and powerful works of art? Students may want to research leaders of the American Renaissance such as Emerson, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Dickinson.
• African Americans originated the traditions of the blues, jazz, and American popular music. What other cultural traditions are native to America and who created them?
• What would you guess Van Vechten himself thought about American culture given his collection of portraits of creative Americans? What do his photographs of landscapes, antiques, and architecture suggest about his attitude?
• What role has immigration played in defining American culture?
• What is the difference between high art and popular culture? Do you think this is a legitimate or helpful distinction? How has American culture affected the meaning of these terms?
• What do you think America's cultural contribution to the world has been?

Because the majority of Van Vecthen's portraits are of lesser-known artists, this collection lends itself to numerous research projects. Students have only to browse the collection until they find someone they would like to learn more about. There are also many better-known individuals whom students are unlikely to be familiar with, such as Erskine Caldwell, Mary Martin, Paul Robeson, and Marsden Hartley. Teachers may compile a list of people who are likely to make good subjects for a research project. The emphasis of research can vary from the individual's biography to his or her relationship to the historical, artistic, cultural, and political backgrounds in which he or she worked. Older students can use caption information such as titles, places, dates, and names to begin research of the historical and artistic movements outlined in the U.S. History section, including modern dance, theatre, visual art, or writing.

Portrait of Paul Robeson, as "Othello", 1944.