Steichen dancing - terpsichorean portraits by Edward Steichen, 1924-36

 

The De Marcos (Antonio and Renée De Marco), 1935.

Fred and Adele Astaire, 1925.

Clifton Webb and Irene Castle, 1933.

Marjorie Moss and Georges Fontana, circa 1928.

The De Marcos, 1935.

Maurice Mouvet and Barbara Bennett, 1925.

Grace and Paul Hartman Dancing #1, 1936.

Grace and Paul Hartman Dancing #2, 1936.

Grace and Paul Hartman Dancing #3, 1936.

Grace and Paul Hartman Dancing #4, 1936.

Marjorie Moss and Georges Fontana, 1925.

Veloz and Yolanda (Frank Veloz and Yolanda Casazza), 1930.

Clifton Webb and Irene Castle, 1933.

Fred and Adele Astaire, 1925.

The De Marcos, 1935.

Maurice Mouvet and Leonore Hughes, 1924. 

To and from fame - Irene Castle and Clifton Webb, photographed for Vogue by Edward Steichen, 1933

 

Webb before he was Waldo Lydecker, Castle after she was "and Vernon."

Between 1909, when he was not yet twenty, and 1944, when he became an Oscar-nominated movie star with his performance in "Laura", Webb had a successful career as a song-and-dance man in light comedies and musicals, mostly on Broadway. He also appeared in a handful of silent films. After the death of Vernon Castle in 1918, his widow continued her film career for four more years, eventually married three more times, became a fashion and society columnist as well as a staunch animal-rights activist, but by 1929 had mostly retired from dancing.

*

Here, in the essay written for Vogue by Webb, himself, he laments the current state of ballroom dancing.

*

Though I was unable to find any further information, it appears that Castle and Webb had paired up before. 

Here, a photograph captioned "Paris, 1922", though I wonder if it wasn't taken slightly later.

Isadora being Isadora

 

Posing in the Parthenon, six images by Edward Steichen, 1921.

Four images by Arnold Genthe, circa 1915-18.

In Venice, circa 1903-05. Probably photographed by her brother, Raymond Duncan.

In Athens, 1903. Four images by her brother, Raymond Duncan.

In the theater of Dionysus, Athens. (Three images.)

Dancing in honor of Rodin at a banquet in the Bois de Vélizy, 1903. (Rodin had just been made a Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur.)

Photograph by Paul Berger, circa 1907-08.

Photograph by Arnold Genthe, circa 1917.

Two portraits by Edward Steichen, 1913.

With Edward Gordon Craig, circa 1906.

With Paris Singer. Two images by Arnold Genthe, circa 1914.

With her children Deirdre and Patrick. Portrait by Otto Wegener, 1913.

Five images by Arnold Genthe, circa 1915-18.

(This, the same photograph as that above, is an example of the cropping and toning Genthe customarily used in his prints.)

With husband Sergei Esenin, Berlin, 1922.

With Esenin, 1922.

With Esenin arriving in the United States, 1922. (Three images.)

A portrait by Baron de Meyer, 1922.

Esenin on the Lido in Venice, 1922. (Two images.)

Photograph by Bertram Park, 1921.

Three images by Arnold Genthe, circa 1915-18.

Circa 1920s.

Portrait by Arnold Genthe, circa 1914.
(The photographer cropped this image from his portrait of Duncan with Paris Singer.)