title:
Gloria Swanson

artist: Edward Steichen

year:
1955-1959

size:
9 1/2" x 7 1/2"

process:
vintage gelatin silver print

provenance: from the Collection of Eugene and Barbara Schwartz, New York City

marks:
stamped on print verso "Photograph by Edward Steichen. Printed from the original negative"

exhibitions:
"On the Art of Fixing A Shadow: 150 Years of Photography"
May 7, 1989- February 25, 1990
Credit:
The Richard Sandor Collection

Traveling show organized by the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art May 7-July 30, 1989
Art Institute of Chicago September 16-November 26, 1989
Los Angeles County Museum of Art December 21, 1989-February 25, 1990
**credited in exhibition catalogue

notes :
This image was the cover for the Sotheby's New York catalog, May 12, 1986:
In his autobiography, Steichen wrote "The day I made . . . [this portrait] Gloria Swanson and I had had a long session, with many changes of costume and different lighting effects. At the end of the session, I took a piece of black lace veil and hung it in front of her face. She recognized the idea at once. Her eyes dilated, and her look was that of a leopardess lurking behind leafy shrubbery, watching her prey. You don't have to explain things to a dynamic intelligent personality like Miss Swanson. Her mind works swiftly and intuitively." (A Life in Photography, unpaginated)