At the age of twelve Nickolas Muray
entered a graphic arts school in Budapest where he learned lithography, photoengraving,
and photography. When Muray immigrated to New York in 1913, he initially worked
as a specialized technician in the magazine publishing industry, but soon
thereafter acquired assignments as a photographer. By 1920 he had opened his
own portrait studio, and he quickly had a thriving business photographing for
magazines such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, McCall's, and Harper's
Bazaar.

Over his long career, Muray photographed
celebrities including H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Claude Monet, Humphrey
Bogart, Babe Ruth, Cole Porter, Herbert Hoover, Greta Garbo, and Willa Cather. Muray
also maintained intense friendships with important Mexican artists, including
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Miguel Covarrubias, and produced memorable
portraits of these artists early in their careers. He encouraged sitters to
project their own self-images, capitalizing on individualized gestures and
occasionally resulting in the establishment of an individual's trademark mannerism.

When Muray first moved to New York,
the prominence of the Photo-Secession, a group of important photographers led
by Alfred Stieglitz, inevitably affected Muray's style, adding a Pictorialist
slant particularly suited to his work in theater and dance. The soft focus,
dramatic lighting, and stylized composition of Male Dancer evoke the
mystery and fantasy of stage productions while the elaborately costumed subject
feigning mock surprise in the stark spotlight suggests a dynamic energy.