Dressing Room
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
During the 1920s the world of the theater permitted bolder expressions of female sexuality that were gradually coming into vogue. The Brooklyn-born painter Walt Kuhn captured this spirit in a series of single portraits featuring costumed performers in intimate, offstage settings. In Dressing Room, a heavily made-up chorus girl directs her gaze outward while flaunting a self-assured stance. Kuhn’s depiction of popular entertainment from this decade contributed to the visualization of the decidedly modern woman and coincided with early feminist advocacy for women’s expanded roles in professional and social life.
Caption
Walt Kuhn American, 1877–1949. Dressing Room, 1926. Oil on canvas, 45 x 33 1/4in. (114.3 x 84.5cm) Frame: 52 x 40 1/8 x 2 in. (132.1 x 101.9 x 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Friends of the Museum, 27.860. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 27.860_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Dressing Room
Date
1926
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
45 x 33 1/4in. (114.3 x 84.5cm) Frame: 52 x 40 1/8 x 2 in. (132.1 x 101.9 x 5.1 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right: "Walt Kuhn / 1926"; on bottom tacking margin: "Jan 1926"
Credit Line
Gift of Friends of the Museum
Accession Number
27.860
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at