Janet Flanner
(1927); printed (1980s)
Medium
gelatin silver photograph
Measurements
11.5 × 8.8 cm (image) 12.3 × 10.3 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2024
© Artist estate through the Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
While living in Paris in the 1920s, Berenice Abbott produced an extraordinary body of images featuring the artists, writers and performers in her social circle, such as Eugène Atget, Jean Cocteau and James Joyce. This portrait of American writer Janet Flanner was also captured by Abbott during this time. A journalist who wrote under the pen name ‘Genêt’, Flanner was a long-term contributor to The New Yorker and a prominent member of the expatriate community living in Paris during the interwar period. In this portrait, Flanner is photographed wearing a suit with striped pants and a top hat, upon which are stacked two masks, adding a Surrealist edge to the image.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Paris, France
Inscription
inscribed in pencil on reverse c.: Berenice Abbott
inscribed in pencil on reverse l.l.: Janet Flanner
Accession Number
2024.10
Department
International Photography