ETHEL WATERS [1938] Portrait by Carl Van Vechten

[New York:] Carl Van Vechten, 28 August 1938. Vintage original borderless 8 x 10″ (25.2 x 20.2 cm) gelatin silver black-and-white semi-matte finish photo. Photographer Carl Van Vechten’s blindstamp in lower left corner, atelier stamp and negative number (“IXN:26”) in green ink in Van Vechten’s hand on verso, minor bump at one corner, otherwise about fine.

A fine portrait of the woman acknowledged as one of the most influential of all jazz and blues singers, often credited as the first African American “superstar”. The image dates from the end of the decade that saw her triumphs at the Cotton Club, her Broadway successes (notably Cabin in the Sky), and her role as the first African American star in a commercial coast-to-cast radio show.

In this photograph, Waters has donned a narrow brimmed, short-crowned hat with a feather and a daisy inserted in the hatband, has her fists on her hips, and is gazing off camera to her left, with a full smile. The Carl Van Vechten Photo Collection at the Library of Congress (LOC) includes at least four other images dating from the same sitting, but this image is not among those in the LOC image database.