Helen Hayes by Philippe Halsman

Description

Helen Hayes Brown
(October 10, 1900, March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned almost 80 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theater" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award (an EGOT). Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. The annual Helen Hayes Awards, which have recognized excellence in professional theater in the greater Washington, D.C. area since 1984, are her namesake. In 1955 the former Fulton Theater on 46th Street in New York City's Broadway Theater District was renamed the Helen Hayes Theater. When that venue was torn down in 1982, the nearby Little Theater was renamed in her honor. This print measures 14 x 11. Halsman's stamp on the reverse, plus title, date and working notes in pencil.
Philippe Halsman
(1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia and began his photographic career in Paris. In 1934 he opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse, where he photographed many well-known artists and writers — including André Gide, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, and André Malraux, using an innovative twin-lens reflex camera that he designed himself.
Part of the great exodus of artists and intellectuals who fled the Nazis, Halsman arrived in the United States with his young family in 1940, having obtained an emergency visa through the intervention of Albert Einstein.
Halsman’s prolific career in America over the next 30 years included reportage and covers for every major American magazine. These assignments brought him face-to-face with many of the century’s leading statesmen, scientists, artists and entertainers. His incisive portraits appeared on 101 covers for LIFE magazine, a record no other photographer could match.
Original silver print
10 x 8 with Halsman's stamp on the reverse. Dated 1958.