[AFRICAN-AMERICANA]. [PHOTOGRAPHY]. Untitled (portrait of a well-dressed African-American man wearing glasses, dated 1937)

Harlem, New York City: G.G.G. Photo Studio, 1937. Fair. Original photograph (8" x 10"), warm-toned gelatin silver print. Signed in the negative (vertically): "NYC / VanDerZee / 1937." On verso two impressions of Van der Zee's G.G.G. Photo Studio stamp in red ink. Damage to photo emulsion near face; significant scrape on vest area, corners of the photograph worn particularly on the lower left. Formerly framed (matte line visible). With real faults as described, and priced accordingly. ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT OF A THOUGHTFUL, WELL-DRESSED AFRICAN-AMERICAN MAN BY JAMES VAN DER ZEE, EASILY THE MOST IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. WE HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO LOCATE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THIS IMAGE.

While elegant, handsome, and very distinctive, the subject of this soft-edged portrait remains unidentified as is so often the case in Van der Zee's oeuvre. Unusually, our sitter is wearing glasses and his arms are positioned on what may be a musical instrument case. Whereas the gelatin silver print is damaged, it is unquestionably by Van der Zee and was printed in his famed G.G.G. [Gaynella Greenlee Guarantee] Photo Studio at 2077 Seventh Ave (now Adam Clayton Powell Blvd) at 124th St. According to the finding aid of NYPL's Van Der Zee Photograph Collection, this was the location of the G.G.G. Studio in the 1930s.

Van der Zee (1886-1983) was "a stalwart documentarian of Black life in Harlem. Assiduously committed to Harlem’s striving and successful denizens over the course of 60 years, his pictures teem with possibility, their subjects shimmering with glamour. During the 1920s and '30s, when the neighborhood’s intellectual, cultural, and creative life was soaring, Van Der Zee cultivated a visual vocabulary of grandeur that ultimately came to represent the Harlem Renaissance." (Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, MoMA, 2021).

"During the 1920s and 1930s, [Van der Zee] produced hundreds of photographs recording Harlem's growing middle class. Its residents entrusted the visual documentation of their weddings, funerals, celebrities, and social life to his carefully composed images. VanDerZee knew the neighborhood and its inhabitants, and shared their dreams and aspirations for self-determination and racial pride." (Smithsonian, African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2003).

AN OUTSTANDING VAN DER ZEE PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT OF WHICH NO OTHER PRINTS HAVE BEEN FOUND. (Inventory #: 4302)