1944, Laura Wheeler Waring, Marian Anderson -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: This monumental portrait of acclaimed opera singer Marian Anderson was part of Waring's Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin series, commissioned by the Harmon Foundation for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Anderson had become a celebrated star of the concert stage in Europe, where Waring first saw her perform in 1916. This portrait memorializes the singer's historic 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, made possible by the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt after Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at the nearby concert hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution on racist grounds. Waring portrays the gracefully poised Anderson with elegant academic naturalism. Three crosses atop a distant hill allude to the concert's occurrence on Easter Sunday.
1944, Laura Wheeler Waring, Marian Anderson -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: This monumental portrait of acclaimed opera singer Marian Anderson was part of Waring's Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin series, commissioned by the Harmon Foundation for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Anderson had become a celebrated star of the concert stage in Europe, where Waring first saw her perform in 1916. This portrait memorializes the singer's historic 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, made possible by the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt after Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at the nearby concert hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution on racist grounds. Waring portrays the gracefully poised Anderson with elegant academic naturalism. Three crosses atop a distant hill allude to the concert's occurrence on Easter Sunday.