Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“If there’s anything I hate it’s a goddamned phony, and Hollywood’s filled with them, pretending to be what they are not and some of them never were.”
—Barbara Stanwyck

R. B. Kitaj (United States, Ohio, Chagrin Falls, 1932-2007)
Koufax, 1998
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

 

Edward Weston
“Hot Coffee,” Mojave Desert, 1937

 

John Singer Sargent
The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy
1907
Oil on canvas
71.4 × 56.5 cm (28 1/8 × 22 1/4 in.)

 

Anne Gunning wears a polka dot dress by Dior in a 1951 photo by Henry Clarke. Gunning was Irish and one of the most famous fashion models of the Fifties. She only did photographic modeling. Never runways.  She said she was afraid of falling down. “That sea of faces glaring at me was too daunting.”

 

Cosmetic Spoon in the Shape of Swimming Woman Holding a Dish
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III
ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Travertine (Egyptian alabaster), steatite
L. 22.5 cm (8 7/8 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

“Hollywood was capable of hurting me so much. The things about Hollywood that could hurt me (when I first came) can’t touch me now. I suddenly decided that they shouldn’t hurt me – that was all… You have to be self-reliant and strong to survive in this town. Otherwise you will be destroyed.”
—Joan Crawford

 

Frank Lloyd Wright
Avery Coonley Playhouse: Triptych Window
1912
Clear and colored leaded glass in oak frames
Center panel: 35 1/4 x 43 in. (89.5 x 109.2 cm) Two side panels: 36 x 7 3/4 in. (91.4 x 19.7 cm) (each)
Art Institute of Chicago

 

Edward Ruscha (b.1937)
Gilmore Drive-In Theater 6201 W. Third St. Los Angeles, CA.
1967, printed 2013
Gelatin silver prints on paper
356 x 279 mm

 

Pink and Rose
Designer:William Morris (British, Walthamstow, London 1834–1896 Hammersmith, London)
Manufacturer:Morris & Company
Printer:Jeffrey & Co. (London)
Date:designed ca. 1890
Block-printed wallpaper
Sheet: 27 x 21 1/2 in. (68.6 x 54.6 cm)

 

Lisa Fonssagrives models an evening dress on the Eiffel Tower for Erwin Blumenfeld, Paris, 1939

 

Poster for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (’69) by Waldemar Swierzy, one of the most dynamic Polish movie poster designers of the 20th Century.

 

“Money doesn’t give you happiness, but it does help calm one’s nerves.”
—Maria Felix, Mexico’s legendary movie star

 


Marc Chagall
The Praying Jew (one of two versions after a 1914 composition)
France, 1923
Oil on canvas
Inscriptions
Signed, l.r.: “MArc / ChAgAll”
46 x 35 3/16 in. (116.8 x 89.4 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago

 

Merle Oberon, Norma Shearer and a Dachshund puppy, c.1939.

 

Above: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Picnic, c. 1893
Below: A scene from his son Jean Renoir’s 1959 movie Picnic on the Grass.

 

Model in a dress by Carosa Roma, Photo by Pasquale de Antonis, 1949

 

Jewish Moroccan Wedding dress and belt, early 20th Century

 

Paul Strand
Porch Shadows
1916
Silver-platinum print

 

Livi, Lielle, and Maayan wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and colorful Shabbat.

 

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Comments

  2. The Wright window reminds me of Green and Green Craftsman style houses. I owned one once. The Gamble House in Pasadena is the best example, The Greens even wove the rugs.

  3. I really like that Sargent painting. It’s so peaceful; I can imagine walking through the garden, hearing the fountain gushing and then just standing off to the side watching the woman paint while the man offers up little bits of advice.

    And the hats on Oberon and Shearer! It’s such a pity women don’t dress like that any more.

    Thank you for these, Robert.

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