Sonya Noskowiak
Maudelle

ArtistAmerican, born Germany, 1900–1975
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Maudelle
Date1939
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 1/4 × 7 3/8 in. (23.5 × 18.8 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/4 × 7 3/8 in. (23.5 × 18.8 cm)
Mount: 18 × 13 7/8 in. (45.7 × 35.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Ron Shaich
Object number2005.1125
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


Maudell Bass was a noted dancer and a favorite model of modernist artists. Her theatricality caught the eye of painter Diego Rivera— who was reportedly “enraptured by her beauty”— and photographers Edward Weston, Johan Hagemeyer, Carl Van Vechten, and Sonya Noskowiak. Unlike those of her contemporaries, Noskowiak’s portrait of Bass is bold and striking, yet quiet and contemplative. Devoid of the costumes, large gestures, or movement that other artists incorporated, Noskowiak’s portrait captured the emotional power that Bass conveyed with merely a raised chin and expressive eyes.



ProvenanceRon Shaich, Scarsdale, New York; given to MFAH, 2005.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in pencil, mount recto, lower right below image: Sonya Noskowiak 1939
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso, upper left: ‘Maudell’ [sic]
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso and recto mat: 2789
Stamped, verso, lower center: SONYA NOSKOWIAK
Signed in pencil, mount recto, lower right below image: Sonya Noskowiak 1939
Stamped, verso, lower center: SONYA NOSKOWIAK

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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