Tennessee Williams

Inscriptions

Label, on reverse, lower center: 2980/ TENNESSEE WILLIAMS/ PHOTOGRAPHED IN NEW YORK/ FEB. 13, 1951/ 4/15. Gate House Framemakers label on reverse.

Label

In this photograph, American playwright Tennessee Williams stares almost directly at the camera—but not quite. His gaze echoes the angularity established by his cigarette-holding hand and his other arm extending out of sight. Even the outline of his patterned bowtie adds to the active diagonals of the composition. Williams was one of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th century, well known for A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof—all works renowned for their jagged emotionality. Irving Penn, a master of subtle suggestion, evokes the essence of Williams’s writing through the composition of this portrait.

From the 2021 exhibition A Legacy for Learning: The Jane and Raphael Bernstein Collection, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Katherine W. Hart, Senior Curator of Collections and Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming; John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director; Jessica Hong, Associate Curator of Global Contemporary Art; and Melissa McCormick, Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at Harvard University

Course History

PORT 8, Brazilian Portraits, Carlos Cortez-Minchillo, Winter 2022

Art History 48.02, Histories of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

A Selection of Photographs from the Hood Museum of Art, Jaffe-Friede Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 4-March 15,1987.

Both Sides of the Lens: Portrait Photography, A Legacy for Learning: The Jane and Raphael Bernstein Collection, William B. Jaffe Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 21, 2021–January 30, 2022.

Publication History

John R. Stomberg, A Legacy for Learning: The Jane and Raphael Bernstein collection; Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, Hood Museum of Art, 2021, listed p.97.

Provenance

Jane and Raphael Bernstein, Ridgewood, New Jersey; given to present collection, 1986.

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Subjects