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Djuna Barnes

1925
Not on view
Abbott lived with the American writer Djuna Barnes when she moved from Ohio to Greenwich Village in 1918, and the two women remained friends, and occasional romantic rivals, throughout their lives. In this portrait, made in Man Ray’s Paris studio, Barnes is elegantly attired and addresses the camera with a smoldering gaze above a slight smile. A decade later, Barnes would publish Nightwood (1936), a classic of lesbian fiction inspired by her tormented affair with the American artist Thelma Wood (1901–1970), who also had a brief relationship with Abbott.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Djuna Barnes
  • Artist: Berenice Abbott (American, Springfield, Ohio 1898–1991 Monson, Maine)
  • Date: 1925
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 22.6 x 17.1cm (8 7/8 x 6 3/4 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Joyce and Robert Menschel Gift, 1987
  • Object Number: 1987.1002
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Berenice Abbott / Commerce Graphics Ltd. Inc.
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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Berenice Abbott
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Max Ernst, Berenice Abbott American, Gelatin silver print
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