

images that haunt us













Al verso della fotografia timbri della ‘Casa d’Arte Bragaglia’ e della ‘Rivista Popolo d’Italia’, insieme ad una annotazione manoscritta, parzialmente errata, nella quale si legge il nome della Savina.
La celebre ballerina inglese (Vera Clark, in arte Savina) lavorò a Mosca nel corpo di ballo dei Ballets Russes di Diaghilev e sposò Léonide Massine (Myasin), altro grande coreografo russo. È ripresa seduta nell’atto in indossare una scarpetta. L’acconciatura, il costume di scena, il gioiello ed il bracciolo della sedia corrispondono esattamente a quelli con cui la ritrasse il pittore scozzese Herbert James Gunn nel quadro ‘Sylphide‘ (1927 – collezione privata).
On the back of the photograph, stamps of the ‘Casa d’Arte Bragaglia’ and ‘Rivista Popolo d’Italia’, together with a handwritten annotation, partially incorrect, in which the name of Savina can be read.
The famous English dancer (Vera Clark, aka Savina) worked in Moscow in the ballet troupe of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and married Léonide Massine (Myasin), another great Russian choreographer. She is shown sitting in the act of wearing a shoe. The hairstyle, the stage costume, the jewel and the armrest of the chair correspond exactly to those with which the Scottish painter Herbert James Gunn portrayed her in the painting ‘Sylphide‘ (1927 – private collection).

Bromide print mounted on artist’s paper. Signed and titled in pencil on mount recto. Nine exhibition labels and two exhibition stamps on verso. The subject is wearing a half mask, a headdress (probably made of velvet) adorned in the middle with a flower-shaped ornament and a huge fluffy collar. He/she wears heavy lipstick and a drawn mole. This is a striking enigmatic picture. It is not clear whether this is a man or a woman.
![Amelia C. Van Buren :: [Profile portrait of woman draped with a veil]; 1917 (?). Platinum print mounted on black mat. Color film copy transparency of the original. LC-USZC4-9380 | src L. of Congress](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52220286681_24bbea24c8_o.jpg)
![Amelia C. Van Buren :: [Profile portrait of woman draped with a veil]; 1917 (?). Platinum print on Rembrandt mount. Color film copy slide of the original. LC-USZC4-9108 | src L. of Congress](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52220324171_dd16900091_o.jpg)
![Amelia C. Van Buren :: [Profile portrait of woman draped with a veil]; 1917 (?). Platinum print mounted on black mat. Color film copy slide of the original. LC-USZC2-5993 | src L. of Congress](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52220301623_4ca69f5e13_o.jpg)
The Library of Congress owns two impressions of this photograph: 1-a (top and bottom) and 1-b (middle). Forms part of: Artistic photographs collected by Frances Benjamin Johnston in the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection. Gift of Frances Benjamin Johnston; 1948.
Published in: Ambassadors of progress / edited by Bronwyn A.E. Griffith … France : Musée d’Art Américain Giverny … 2001, p. 177.
Exhibited: Ambassadors of progress, 2001-2003
all information is from the Library of Congress

