Thread by @dean_frey

In 1967 photographer Nickolas Muray & writer Paul Gallico collaborated on a book called The Revealing Eye: Personalities of the 1920's
amzn.to/3cuQ6ku

It's sad that Muray died, in November of 1965, before he could see this book. Gallico begins the section "Memento Muray":
"The late Nickolas Muray was a Hungarian first and a photographer second."
It's not in the book, but here's Gallico by Muray, an undated shot @EastmanMuseum

Paul Gallico: "Nickolas Muray's Wednesday nights are celebrated - the whole artistic world and his wife can be seen there..."
Sorry for my ignorance of Greenwich Village: is 'the Square' Washington Square?

Here are Nickolas Muray's photographs of the dancer Desha Gorska (his sister-in-law), c. 1922; & the Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany, c. 1921

A splendid photograph of Willy Pogany's studio by Nickolas Muray, from 1920. This group is the American version of Evelyn Waugh's Bright Young Things of the 1920s.

As for Ina Claire, this amazing portrait by Nickolas Muray is in the book. Gallico is obviously impressed: "Miss Claire managed to make all plays in which she acted appear to be about her."

Paul Gallico continues the name-dropping re. Nickolas Muray's Wednesdays. What a diverse bunch!

I'll add some of the most interesting Muray portraits of those mentioned.
Paul Gallico: "In this moving study Nick Muray has captured both the power and the melancholy of Paul Robeson."

Nicholas Muray took tons of photographs of Martha Graham; the two were obviously close
Look at this outstanding portrait of Martha Graham, from c. 1925, included in the book. It has the elegant curve that Barbara Morgan made famous in her 1940 photo "Letter to the World".

Here, as a reminder, is Martha Graham as Emily Dickinson by Barbara Morgan, 1940
@MuseumModernArt

I'm not sure what the relationship between Graham & Muray was. There's an amazing letter from her that I tweeted about yesterday:

https://twitter.com/dean_frey/status/1234909389498114048?s=20

Here's Jean Cocteau by Nickolas Muray, c. 1926. Gallico called him "a nonconformist genius on the loose."

I love this Nickolas Muray portrait of Carl Van Vechten with his wife, the beautiful actress Fania Marinoff. They were married for 50 years, until his death in 1964.

I suspect that Carl Van Vechten's reputation as a photographer has gone up more than a bit since Paul Gallico's put-down. Remember that this was published in 1967.

Here's Paul Gallico by Carl Van Vechten, December 1937.
"I have a handful of prints he made of me at a time when, apparently, he was photographing *anyone* who would sit still for him."

Nick Muray: "I first met Eugene O’Neill around 1919, when I had my studio next to the Provincetown Players on MacDougal Street and photographed some of the productions he had written or directed."
O'Neill in Provincetown, 1919 - this is the earliest of many portraits by Muray.

Nickolas Muray continues his Eugene O'Neill story.

Here's Eugene O'Neill's favourite shot: taken by Nickolas Muray on the balcony of the lighthouse on top of the dunes, in 1923.
@EastmanMuseum

More stories by Paul Gallico show how close Nick Muray was with Eugene O'Neill & his family.

Nickolas Muray
Eugene O'Neill with his wife Agnes Boulton O'Neill, son Shane and daughter Oona, 1926

Nick Muray was involved in the next stage of Eugene O'Neill's complicated domestic life. In 1925 O'Neill happened to have a portrait sitting around the same time as Carlotta Barton, the wife of Muray's close friend Ralph Barton. Carlotta & Gene hit it off.

"The compound tragic ending came in 1930, when Ralph returned from Paris. I photographed him the day before he committed suicide. His self-written obituary mentioned that Carlotta refused to come back to him, giving that as the reason for his desperate decision."
RB by NM, 1930

The two friends in happier days:
Nickolas Muray by Ralph Barton, c. 1930

Nickolas Muray, like many great portrait photographers, made self-portraits throughout his life. The book's frontispiece is this splendid fencing shot, likely from the late 1930s.
@damonayoung

Paul Gallico adds this appreciation of Nickolas Muray the fencer. Muray fenced for the US at the 1928 & 1932 Olympics (where he finished 4th in sabre). He also won the National Saber Championship 3 times in the 20s. So I was surprised to see Paul & Nick using epées here.

Art deco fencing: Nickolas Muray & Giorgio Santelli, 1928. Santelli, according to Wikipedia, is the Hungarian-born "Father of Modern Sabre Fencing."

Nickolas Muray's studio, 129 MacDougal St., 1918
“His most trenchant revelations of some of the greats & near greats of the 20s were obtained through his technical mastery of the apparatus of photography & his personal approach to & understanding of his sitters.”
- Paul Gallico

One of the most compelling stories in the life of Nickolas Muray is his ten-year love affair with Frida Kahlo. This letter from Frida in Paris to Nick in NY, from the @Smithsonian @ArchivesAmerArt is from 1939, which was year 8. Intense!

Nickolas Muray took everybody's favourite Frida Kahlo portrait that same year, 1939
"Diego says that it is as marvellous as a Piero della Francesca. To me it is more than that, it is a treasure, & besides, it will always remind me of that morning we had breakfast together."

Nickolas Muray
Frida on a White Bench
"I wish I had magic in my hands I’d pick you up & carry you above the clouds into the sun & have a talk with the guy who supposedly created the cactus & the world around, the little pigs, & Diego, & you, & me, & Miguel."
- Nick to Frida, 1939

Here's a coincidence: Celia Stahr's book Frida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist was released last week. I've just started reading it, but I peeked ahead to the Nick Muray stories.
amzn.to/2PNRTHJ

Celia Stahr introduces Nickolas Muray:
"Nick, like most men, was entranced by Frida. She was an unusual combination of a deep soul with a vivacious love for life. Nick, who had a reputation as a ladies’ man, had met his match."
📷 Frida with Granizo, Coyoacan, 1939