Edward Steichen (1879-1973). France.
Edward Steichen’s iconic image of Gloria Swanson is one of the most celebrated portraits of the 20th Century and remains captivating nearly a century after its making. The photograph was the result of a 1924 sitting for Vogue magazine that Steichen recounted in his autobiography, A Life in Photography: “The day I made the picture, Gloria Swanson and I 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 and intelligent personality like Miss Swanson. Her mind works swiftly and intuitively.”
The portrait was a collaboration between two highly accomplished professionals. In many ways, photographer and subject were kindred souls; both possessed an extraordinary ambition to excel in their respective fields, and both maintained successful high-profile careers throughout their long lives. Swanson was one of few actresses to make the transition from the silent-film era to sound, and thence to theatre and television. Steichen was that rare photographer who produced masterful images as a Pictorialist, a Modernist, an aerial and combat photographer, and as a photographer of fashion and celebrity. Steichen and Swanson’s interaction in the studio on that day in 1924 illustrates the intense devotion of each to their own objective: Swanson to perpetuate her allure, and Steichen to capture his subject at her most alluring.
Vanity Fair published this image in its February 1928 issue to coincide with the release of the film Sadie Thompson, starring and produced by Swanson, which had generated a fair amount of notoriety for its depiction of a jazz-age fallen woman attempting to find redemption on a tropical island. Swanson received an Academy Award nomination for the role, and Steichen’s portrait became the definitive image of the star. (from Phillips auction catalog 2018).
