Artwork Title: Evelyn Florence Nesbit

Evelyn Florence Nesbit, 1902

Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr.

Artwork Title: Evelyn Florence NesbitArtwork Title: Evelyn Florence Nesbit
This photograph is erroneously attributed to Gertrude Kasebier on innumerable websites. The image chosen includes the caption which shows definitively that Eickemeyer was the photographer, not Kasebier. Caption text: Photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Copyright 1901, by the Campbell Art Co. Miss Evelyn Florence Recently "discovered" by a theatrical manager and now on exhibition as a rare beauty in "The Wild Rose." Her contract with the manager, it is said, is unique in its provisions and says she shall not "Become engaged or contract marriage. Appear at any public restauraut [sic] or cafe within a radius of one mile of any theatre. Be photographed privately or publicly. Sell or cause to be sold photographs of herself. Appear in the boxes of any theatre while witnessing public performances. Ride in street cars. Publish any interviews in newspapers or magazines or publish reproductions of her photographs. Appear at private balls, parties or suppers. Carry or lead a dog or other pet on streets. Appear in public without face veiling. Use stimulants of any kind, save tea or coffee. Wear gowns, costumes, millinery, boots, shoes and gloves, except such as may be approved by her manager. Become facially tanned." Evelyn Florence Nesbit Date: July 1902 — caption states copyright 1901 by the Campbell Art Company Source: Theatre Magazine, July 1902 (page 15) Author: The Theatre Magazine Co.; Rudolf Eickemeyer, photographer [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evelyn_Florence_1.jpg] Evelyn Nesbit was considered by many to be the most beautiful and most notorious young woman in 1906 American when she was just 22 years old. By then, she had been famous for slightly over six years, beginning just around the time this photograph was taken (by arguably the most famous female photographer of the period) [sic]. Before 1906, Evelyn had already achieved fame as an early supermodel, first for painters and illustrators, then for photographers. Evelyn modeled for artists such as Frederick Church, illustrators such as Charles Dana Gibson, and for products such as toothpaste, face cream, beer trays and postcards. Nesbit then became a Floradora girl on Broadway, but quickly graduated to a featured role in a Broadway musical, moving out of the chorus and into the awareness of a number of influential men, including John Barrymore and Stanford White. White was a leading American architect, one of the men changing the look of American homes for the rich and public buildings like universities, theatres, train stations, and civic halls. White was 47 and Evelyn was 16 when they met, and with her mother’s blessing, began an affair. A few years later, Evelyn married Harry K. Thaw, a Pittsburgh playboy who was mentally unstable. In 1906, Thaw killed White at the rooftop dinner-theatre of the old Madison Square Garden (deisgned by White) and launched “the trial of the century,” as it was dubbed. Thaw went to a mental hospital (after 2 trials) but was later released, Evelyn was shunned and broke by the end of it, and, of course, White was dead. [https://elysesnow.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/photograph-of-evelyn-nesbit-by-gertrude-kasebier-1900/] Florence Evelyn Nesbit (Dec. 25, 1884 – Jan. 17, 1967), known professionally as Evelyn Nesbit, was an American chorus girl, an artists' model, and an actress. In the early part of the 20th century, the figure and face of Evelyn Nesbit were everywhere, appearing in mass circulation newspaper and magazine advertisements, on souvenir items and calendars, making her a cultural celebrity. Her career began in her early teens in Philadelphia and continued in New York, where she posed for a cadre of respected artists of the era, James Carroll Beckwith, Frederick S. Church, and notably Charles Dana Gibson, who idealized her as a "Gibson Girl". She had the distinction of being an early "live model", in an era when fashion photography as an advertising medium was just beginning its ascendancy. Nesbit claimed that as a stage performer, and while still a 14-year-old, she attracted the attention of the then 47-year-old architect and New York socialite Stanford White, who first gained the family's trust then sexually assaulted Evelyn while she was unconscious. Nesbit achieved world-wide notoriety when her husband, multi-millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, shot and murdered Stanford White on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden on the evening of June 25, 1906, leading to what the press would call "The Trial of the Century".... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Nesbit]
Uploaded on Dec 9, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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