Elegant Ballerina Dancer Patricia Bowman Vintage ' 30s Maurice Seymour Photograph
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:2949426 | Size: 7.5" x 9.75" |
| Original/Reproduction: Original | Modified Item: No |
| Subject: Patricia Bowman | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
| Photographer: Maurice Seymour |
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ITEM: This is a 1930s vintage and original photograph of ballerina Patricia Bowman. Photographed by Maurice Seymour, this is a gorgeous and dramatically composed portrait of the dancer in an elegant dance pose. A beautiful view of the danseuse who also had a brief career in Hollywood appearing as a dancer in a few films and hosting her own television show in the 1950s.
Measures 7.5" x 9.75" on a glossy double weight paper stock.
Various ink stamps and handwritten notations on verso.
CONDITION: Fine condition with creasing on the corners, light scattered surface wear, faint grease pencil markings in the upper right corner, and general storage/handling wear. Please use the included images as a conditional guide.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
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Patricia Bowman, a Ballerina Who Linked Two Eras of Dance
Patricia Bowman, a founding member of American Ballet Theater, a ballerina of the Radio City Music Hall and the first American ballerina to win critical acclaim and wide popularity as a classical and a musical-theater dancer, died on March 18 in Las Vegas, Nev., her home since 1977. She was believed to be in her early to mid 90's.
A link between two eras of dance, Ms. Bowman began her career when there were no major American ballet companies. She performed on Broadway and in the elaborate live shows offered at motion-picture palaces of the 1920's and 30's. Her sparkling stage personality won her many fans. Yet when American ballet companies began to flourish, she gave authoritative performances in some of the great classics.
A native of Washington, Ms. Bowman studied with various teachers there and in New York and Europe. She became a protegee of Michel Fokine, the Russian ballet choreographer of ''Les Sylphides, '' ''Petrouchka'' and other works, who settled in New York in 1923. Fokine choreographed solos for her, among them ''Tennis, '' a witty sketch she offered in vaudeville shows and as a guest artist with ballet troupes.
Ms. Bowman made her New York debut in the 1920 edition of the revue ''George White's Scandals.'' For many years, she went back and forth between dance forms, touring with the Fokine Ballet, forming a ballroom dance team with Tony de Marco, appearing in pioneering television productions in 1931 and 1939 and serving as ballerina of the Roxy Theater. When Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932, she was appointed its prima ballerina and she continued to perform there occasionally until the early 1950's. She also appeared in the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' of 1934 and with the Mordkin Ballet in 1938.
During the first season of Ballet Theater (now American Ballet Theater) in 1940, she starred in ''Swan Lake, '' ''Giselle, '' ''Les Sylphides'' and other works. Reviewing Ms. Bowman in ''Giselle, '' John Martin wrote in The New York Times that ''besides dancing with complete authority she achieves a dramatic credibility in the difficult first act that very few Giselles can match.'' She returned as guest artist during Ballet Theater's 15th-anniversary season in 1955 and was partnered by Erik Bruhn in ''Les Sylphides.''
After leaving Ballet Theater in 1941, she appeared on Broadway in ''Rhapsody'' in 1944, performed nationwide with opera companies and was a guest dancer at orchestral concerts. She was hostess for the ''Patricia Bowman Show, '' a 13-week CBS television series in 1951. Ms. Bowman directed a ballet school in New York from 1957 until 1977, when she married Albert Kaye and moved to Las Vegas, where she served as a consultant to local dance groups.
– Jack Anderson, The New York Times
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Maurice Seymour
Biography By: David S. Shields
Maurice (1900-1993) and Seymour Zeldman (1902-1995), Russian expatriate photographers, formed the "Maurice Seymour" studio in 1929. Inspired by the example of Maurice Goldberg, the foremost photographer of classical dancers and concert musicians of the 1920s and regular contributor to the New York Times, the brothers chose to make a particular forte of ballet dancers. From 1929 to 1950 they plied their trade in a studio at the St. Clair Hotel in Chicago. In 1950 Seymour Zeldman moved to New York City; both men at this juncture legally changed their names to Maurice Seymour.
The New York brother expanded his clientele from dancers and actors to singers, jazz musicians, and burlesque stars in the 1950s. He for a period partnered with James Kriegsmann, successor to Herbert Mitchell, and a practitioner of in situ photography of singers and musicians in their performance venues. The Chicago Maurice Seymour continued specializing in dance and theatrical photography, although he had, for a period of time in the 1930s, a healthy business from radio personalities as well. Both shuttered their studios in the 1970s.
When in Chicago, they collaborated completely when creating images, sharing the posing and developing work. The images tended to be brightly illuminated, posed against neutral featureless backgrounds, and developed on glossy paper. The studio's skill at retouching was particularly well known. All of the Chicago portraits were taken with a large accordion portrait camera using 8x10 negatives. From 1935 onward, the brothers were the preferred portraitists of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In 1947 the studio published Seymour on Ballet, a set of photographic studies, with a forward by Leonid Massine (Chicago: Pelligrini & Cudahy), and in 1952, an expanded portfolio, Ballet Portraits, featuring Margot Fonteyn (Chicago: Pelligrini & Cudahy).
NOTES: Obituary, Chicago Tribune (Oct 19, 1993). "Photographing Dancers, " Dance Magazine (Mar 1950), 16-19, 35. The estate of Maurice Seymour (Maurice Zeldman) is managed by his son, the photographer Ron Seymour: www (dot) ronseymour (dot) com/new/rs07 (dot) html David S. Shields/ALS
— Biography By: David S. Shields c/o Broadway (dot) CAS (dot) SC (dot) edu
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