Five portraits of his wife, Pauline - Sir James Gunn

Pauline Waiting, 1939.

Pauline in a Yellow Dress, 1944.

Pauline in the Mcleod Tartan, circa 1946.

My Wife, circa 1933.

Pauline, Wife of the Artist, 1930.

***

Sir James Gunn RA, also known as Sir Herbert James Gunn (30 June 1893, Glasgow - 30 December 1964, London), British portrait and landscape painter. He began drawing lessons at the age of five. He then studied at the Glasgow School of Art, the Edinburgh College of Art and, beginning in 1911, the Académie Julian in Paris. He left Paris at the outbreak of the First World War and initially joined the Artists Rifles. He subsequently received a commission in the 10th Scottish Rifles and saw active service in France. He began professionally as a landscape painter, but from 1929 he devoted himself to portrait painting. Working in a solid, forthright style, he received commissions from many leading figures of the day including eminent politicians and soldiers, academics, judges, bankers, the aristocracy, and actors. He is probably best known for his 1953-54 coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, which was widely reproduced at the time and is part of the Royal Collection, hanging in the Garter Throne Room at Windsor Castle. He was elected President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1953, a post he held until his death. He was elected to the Royal Academy as a full academician in 1961 and was knighted for services to painting in 1963. He died the following year at the age of seventy-one.

He married for the first time in 1919. He and his wife, Gwendoline, had three daughters; they divorced in 1927 after she ran off with one of her husband's sitters, the millionaire banker, Sir Arthur Whinney. He married again, two years later, to Pauline Miller with whom he had a son and another daughter. Pauline - the subject of the portraits featured here - died in 1950, after a long illness, only forty-nine.

A Young Man Seated Under a Tree, a miniature by Isaac Oliver, circa 1590-95

This tiny image is one of my favorite paintings. Ever. In the Royal Collection, it is painted in watercolor on vellum laid on card, and only measures 12.4 x 8.9 centimeters (4.88 x 3.50 inches). Though there has been much speculation and much serious research done, the identity of the sitter still remains unknown.

***

Isaac Oliver (or Olivier; circa 1565, Rouen – buried 2 October 1617, London), French-born English portrait miniature painter. Oliver’s French Huguenot parents took him to England about 1568 to escape the Wars of Religion in France. There he later studied under the miniature painter Nicholas Hilliard, developing a naturalistic style which was largely influenced by Italian and Flemish art. Oliver soon won renown and royal patronage for his miniatures, including portraits, religious, and classical scenes. His first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1599 and in 1602 he married Sara, daughter of the well-known portrait painter Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. After the death of Elizabeth I, he became a court painter of James I, painting numerous portraits of James' queen, Anne of Denmark, and Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. The artist's son by his first marriage, Peter Oliver, had studied with his father and, employing his later style, became an eminent miniaturist in his own right.

Randomly Dietrich

  Photographed by William Walling Jr., 1934.

In transit, circa mid-1930s.

Indulging reporters on the deck of the Île-de-France, 1934 (?).

Circa 1940.

With Melvyn Douglas, publicity for "Angel", 1937.

Circa early1940s.

Circa 1935. Her eyebrows - then at their zenith - look even more unnatural in the bright sunlight.

Publicity for "Knight Without Armour", 1937. This is one of my favorite Dietrich films, though not well known.

Publicity for "Knight Without Armour", 1937.

In "Desire", 1936. The way she says "pearls" is inimitable.

Beaded by Irene, early 1940s.

Beaded by Jean Louis, publicity for her Las Vegas shows, mid-1950's

Publicity for "Stage Fright", 1950, another of my favorite Dietrich films.

In "Stage Fright", 1950.

Photographed by William Walling Jr. (?), circa 1934.

Circa early 1930s.

A photographic male miscellany

Unknown, ND.

Everett Lee Jackson aka "Cherokee", photographed by the Athletic Model Guild, circa early 1960s.

Car hops at the Log Lodge Tavern in Dallas, circa 1940s.

Rudolph Valentino, circa 1923. (He looks to be standing near a recording device, and in the Spring of that year he recorded two songs,  
The Kashmiri Song and El Relicario.)

Unknown, Japan, probably nineteenth century.

Marvin Maazel, 1921.

Unknown, ND. (Courtesy Os Jovens Pihdit.)

Diving at the Valley Baths, Brisbane, Queensland, 1938.

Unknown, ND.

Unknown, probably early twentieth century. Courtesy Os Jovens Pihdit.

Unknown, probably early twentieth century.

Unknown, probably early twentieth century. Russia?

Unknown, probably early twentieth century. Russia?

Sven Holm and David Knight, circa 1950s or early 1960s.

"Bubi", by Jean Moral, 1927.

Unknown, probably late nineteenth century to early twentieth century.

Unknown, ND

"Belgian Boxer Being Massaged After Training", by Arthur Wyns, 1913.

Unknown, probably circa 1920s - 1940s.

John Gilbert in "The Masks of the Devil", with Alma Rubens, 1928.

Unknown, probably late nineteenth century to early twentieth century.

Unknown, ND.