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New York circa 1901. "Evelyn Nesbit, age 16, brought to the studio by Stanford White." A chorus girl turned artists' model, Evelyn Nesbit was at the center of a huge scandal in 1906 when her husband killed her former lover, the architect Stanford White. View full size. 8x10 glass negative by Gertrude Käsebier.
No doubt, the kind of woman that men would kill for. Oh, wait, that already happened.
Such a pretty girl. Such a messy life. *Sigh*.
A interesting article on the final days of White's "Red Velvet Swing" rowhouse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/nyregion/thecity/04swin.html
Her beauty is astonishing. The unhappy course of her life bolsters the idea that over-the-top beauty skews a woman's life. Good looks are pleasant and useful, but when all the attention is for one's appearance, how is it possible to become a balanced person?
The Nesbit story was also the inspiration for Claude Chabrol's latest film, "The Girl Cut in Two." (Found this photo while searching for some info on the movie.)
I first saw this picture in my 30's in a book and was haunted by it for weeks, but didn't know why. I'm in my 50's now and I realize now what it was about the picture: her look. Jeez. How many 16 year olds have that "look" in a photo or otherwise. The eroticism is so intense and it transcends time. She is as beautiful a creature as ever existed. As Jerry Lee Lewis once said, if God made anything better than a woman, he kept it to himself.
I first saw this picture in a book when I was in my 30's. I'm 58 now. It has haunted me over the years. There is something so erotic about it even though nothing in it is particularly out of place. Then, I finally figured it out....the look on her face. Says it all. I have it in a frame in my den now. My wife thinks it's artistic, but Evelyn and I know better. Don't we, sweetheart?
Hi. My new book, American Eve, is a bio of Evelyn Nesbit, the girl "who put one man in the grave and another in the bughouse." It has 50 period photos, many of which have not been seen for 100 years (if ever before.) Take a look at
http://www.americaneve.com.
cheers
Paula Uruburu
I'd risk tearing the fabric of my being apart with wormhole-based time travel to get close to that. In photos at least, she had a very strange, indefinable, undeniable charisma. Amazing.
Isn't this the same girl as on the cover of the Alexander Theroux novel "Laura Warholic, The Sexual Intellectual"?
[It is. - Dave]
This photograph haunts me. It's like she's saying "Admit it, you'd go to jail for this!" What a beautiful picture! I'm going to search for more of her images. I don't know too much about her.
I agree with the Delft suggestion. It matches others that have been in my family for decades.
The dress and especially the cap point to Holland. My guess is that it is Delft (blue monochrome) or Makkum (polychrome) earthenware. The defects in the glazing suggest that it is late 18th or early 19th century.
I believe the small pitcher is an example of French Quimper faience pottery. You can see other examples here:
She is holding a small pitcher in her hand. The pattern looks like one from Pyrex, which is impossible given the date. Can someone tell me the maker? Thanks!
[Pyrex glassware? This looks like hand-painted ceramic to me. - Dave]
She was played by Elizabeth McGovern in the movie version of "Ragtime." The part earned McGovern an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1981.
This is one of the tamer photographs that Stanford White had taken of Evelyn, who was one of the models for Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girl" drawings. After White dumped her for more "virginal" girls she was the mistress of John Barrymore. After White's murder by her husband Harry K. Thaw she was promised a million dollars by Thaw's mother as a divorce settlement. Evelyn got the divorce but not the money. After an indifferent career as a vaudeville performer, silent film performer and club manager, she overcame alcoholism and an addiction to morphine as well as a number of suicide attempts. She eventually settled down and taught classes in ceramics. She died in California in 1967 at age 82.
Evelyn Nesbit, the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, was the subject of the PBS documentary Murder of the Century. She was also a prominent character in the E.L. Doctorow bestseller "Ragtime."
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