BILLIE HOLIDAY

HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959).

Two sepia publicity portraits, c.1940, signed and inscribed by Billie Holiday. One inscribed in black ink ‘For Rosamond, stay as fine as your name, Billie Holiday’, the other inscribed in blue ink ‘For Clare, Billie Holiday’.

In her study of Lady Day, Julia Blackburn wrote of the session that produced these evocative portraits: ‘[Friend and publicist] Greer Johnson was also determined to get Billie photographed by the society photographer Robin Carson, who was in his opinion “the best man in the business”, someone who would be able to capture her serious qualities as an artist… And so, on a cold autumn afternoon they arrived at Carson’s apartment… The hours went by, and everyone was laughing and joking and Billie was relaxed and beautiful. Robin Carson was keen to do her justice and, although he had taken numerous pictures, he felt he hadn’t got the image he was seeking… Billie had meanwhile changed into a black sequinned dress and had a bunch of artificial gardenias pinned to the side of her head, and she was “feeling absolutely marvellous”. Greer Johnson suggested that she go over by the fireplace and sing Strange Fruit… She sang a capella and Robin Carson’s camera never stopped.’ Blackburn, 161-162.

The images by Robin Carson for Associated Booking Corp., New York, sepia toned gelatin silver prints, c.1940, each 253 x 206 mm.

[With:] a black and white photograph of Billie Holiday and Artie Shaw at the Roseland Ballroom, Boston, 1938. The image by noted “teenage jazz fan” Bob Inman, gelatin silver print, printed later, with Inman’s annotations in ballpoint pen recto and verso, 271 x 215 mm.