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, Self-Portraits, Early Selfies

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“Never get caught acting.” —Lillian Gish
“Never get caught acting.”
—Lillian Gish

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Self Portrait, 1782.
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait, 1782.

 

Vivian Maier, Self-Portrait, 1955
Vivian Maier, Self-Portrait, 1955

 

Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait in front of the Easel January 1888, Paris Oil on canvas, 65 x 51 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh
Self-Portrait in front of the Easel
January 1888, Paris
Oil on canvas, 65 x 51 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

 

Ilse Bing, Self-portrait with Mirror, 1931.
Ilse Bing, Self-Portrait with Mirror, 1931.

 

Henri Matisse, Self Portrait, 1900, at Centre Pompidou Paris France.
Henri Matisse, Self-Portrait, 1900, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

 

"I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling."-exerpt from a letter written by Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, to her father, Tsar Nicholas II, on October 28, 1914. She was executed with her family by members of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police, on July 17, 1918.
“I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling.”—Excerpt from a letter written by Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna to her father, Tsar Nicholas II, October 28, 1914. Anastasia and her family were murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918.

 

“This movie game is like shoot-the-chutes. You're in breathtaking ecstasy one minute and down in the doldrums the next. . . . You can't live for your art in this game. You've got to keep a weather eye on the box office and that means you're going to do a lot of things and play many a part you don't want to. If an actor has any integrity at all, it will take the keen edges off his idealism about his work. . . . I wanted the respect for my work. . . . Then I wanted money. I hated poverty like a snake.” —John Gilbert
“This movie game is like shoot-the-chutes. You’re in breathtaking ecstasy one minute and down in the doldrums the next. . . . You can’t live for your art in this game. You’ve got to keep a weather eye on the box office and that means you’re going to do a lot of things and play many a part you don’t want to. If an actor has any integrity at all, it will take the keen edges off his idealism about his work. . . . I wanted the respect for my work. . . . Then I wanted money. I hated poverty like a snake.”
—John Gilbert

 

Catharina van Hemessen, Self portrait, 1548. This might be the first self-portrait ever done where the artist is shown at an easel.
Catharina van Hemessen, Self-Portrait, 1548. This is thought to be the first self-portrait where the artist displays the tools of the trade: paint, mahlstick, brushes, stretched raw canvas, and easel.

 

Swiss photographer Frédéric Boissonnas, Self Portrait, 1900.
Swiss photographer Frédéric Boissonnas, Self-Portrait, 1900.

 

Annabel Carracci, Self-Portrait c. 1604 Oil on wood, 42 x 30 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Annabel Carracci, Self-Portrait c. 1604 Oil on wood, 42 x 30 cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

 

Claude Cahun Self Portrait, 1925
Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, 1925

 

Pablo Picasso, Self Portrait, 1901.
Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait, 1901.

 

“The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.” —Grace Kelly
“The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.”
—Grace Kelly

 

Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c 1524)
Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c 1524)

 

Elliott Erwitt, Self Portrait, Ireland, 1970.
Elliott Erwitt, Self-Portrait, Ireland, 1970.

 

Edward Hopper, Self Portrait (1925-1930) oil on canvas, 25-1/4″ x 20-5/8″, Whitney Museum of American Art
Edward Hopper, Self-Portrait (1925-1930) oil on canvas, 25-1/4″ x 20-5/8″, Whitney Museum of American Art

 

Nobuyoshi Araki, Self-Portrait from “Grand Photomaniac Diary” 1990-1999.
Nobuyoshi Araki, Self-Portrait from “Grand Photomaniac Diary” 1990-1999.

 

Gustave_Courbet, The Desperate Man,
Gustave Courbet, “The Desperate Man”, (Self-Portrait) Oil on canvas; 17.7″ × 21.3″, c. 1843— 45.

 

Robert J. Avrech, “Self Portrait in Gang Bangers Auto” Los Angeles, 2013
Robert J. Avrech, “Self-Portrait in Gang Banger’s Classic Chevrolet — With Permission of Gang Banger” Los Angeles, 2013

 

Felix Nussbaum, Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card, 1943. Nussbaum died at Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 39. A museum devoted to his work was completed in 1998 in his hometown of Osnabrück.
Felix Nussbaum, Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card, 1943.
Nussbaum died at Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 39. A museum devoted to Nussbaum’s work was completed in 1998 in his hometown of Osnabrück.

 

Mayan Ariel jumps for joy because it's almost Shabbat. Beverly Hills, CA Photo by: Steve Cohn www.stevecohnphotography.com
Maayan Ariel jumps for joy because it’s almost Shabbat. And so should you. Maayan wishes all our friends and relatives an ennobling and tranquil Shabbat.
Beverly Hills, CA
Photo by: Steve Cohn
www.stevecohnphotography.com

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robert – you could take a picture of Grace Kelly slathered in cold cream and bathrobe and I’d like it. And what a profound truth about the press. (of course the press enabled her world-wide popularity).

    Van Gogh – I can see the suffering in his face.

    What a wonderful picture of Maayan!

    With Anastasia and Felix is see the beauty of their art and know that evil will befall both of them.

    The gangbanger? Nice pic and I’m guessing ’53 Chevy.

    My late great aunt – who lived above Warner Brothers for decades – off Barham Blvd – had a light blue ’54 Chevy for 30 years – complete with that clear cheesy plastic they used to put on the fabric seat covers in the 50s – I suspect that is rolling with a gang banger these days…

  3. I love the Vivian Maier photo. I like how Vivian used the worker as a prop, but what about the photo-bomber… was she staged or incidental?

    Van Gogh, Bing, Matisse, et. al. all very nice.

    The Felix Nussbaum self-portrait is sad — note the dark foreboding sky and dead tree — but I can’t help but think that he looks like Humphrey Bogart in this painting!

    I love the action shot of Maayan jumping. I don’t know much about photography, but Mr. Cohn caught her in mid jump with her face perfectly in focus, but her shoes and the background slightly out of focus — and I like the one-eyed look here. 🙂

    I also like the “To be continued” instead of “The End” — that means there’s more to come next week!

    Have a wonderful Sabbath everyone.

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