Katharine Hepburn Ernest Bachrach Vintage 30s Large Fine Art Display Photograph
Item History & Price
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ITEM: This is a 1930s vintage and original studio portrait fine art display photograph mounted to board of legendary Golden Age of Hollywood actress Katharine Hepburn. Photographed by Ernest A. Bachrach, this studio still has been expertly hand printed by the photographer and comes from his private archive. This is a highly sophisticated and glamorous view of Hepburn in a dramatic and mysterious style that shows off her angular features and otherworldly beauty to perfection.
Known for her fierce independence and spirited personality, Hepburn was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and she received a record four Academy Awards for Best Actress. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine, and refused to conform to society's expectations of women. She was outspoken, assertive, athletic, and wore trousers before it was fashionable for women to do so. She was briefly married as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. A 26-year relationship with her co-star Spencer Tracy was hidden from the public. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn epitomized the "modern woman" in the 20th-century United States, and is remembered as an important cultural figure.
Measures 15" x 20" with an image size of 9.25" x 11.25" on matte paper stock.
CONDITION: Fine, near fine+ condition with light corner wear to the display board, silvering to the emulsion along the edges of the photo, and a few very minor printing imperfections. Please use the included images as a conditional guide.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
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Born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, she was the daughter of a doctor and a suffragette, both of whom always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a child, she was also very close to her brother, Tom, and was devastated at age 14 to find him dead, the apparent result of accidentally hanging himself while practicing a hanging trick their father had taught them. For many years after this, Katharine used his birthdate, November 8, as her own. She then became very shy around girls her age, and was largely schooled at home. She did attend Bryn Mawr College, however, and it was here that she decided to become an actress, appearing in many of their productions.
After graduating, she began getting small roles in plays on Broadway and elsewhere. She always attracted attention in these parts, especially for her role in "Art and Mrs. Bottle" (1931); then, she finally broke into stardom when she took the starring role of the Amazon princess Antiope in "A Warrior's Husband" (1932). The inevitable film offers followed, and after making a few screen tests, she was cast in A Bill of Divorcement (1932), opposite John Barrymore. The film was a hit, and after agreeing to her salary demands, RKO signed her to a contract. She made five films between 1932 and 1934. For her third, Morning Glory (1933) she won her first Academy Award. Her fourth, Little Women (1933) was the most successful picture of its day.
But stories were beginning to leak out of her haughty behavior off- screen and her refusal to play the Hollywood Game, always wearing slacks and no makeup, never posing for pictures or giving interviews. Audiences were shocked at her unconventional behavior instead of applauding it, and so when she returned to Broadway in 1934 to star in "The Lake", the critics panned her and the audiences, who at first bought up tickets, soon deserted her. When she returned to Hollywood, things didn't get much better. From the period 1935-1938, she had only two hits: Alice Adams (1935), which brought her her second Oscar nomination, and Stage Door (1937); the many flops included Break of Hearts (1935), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Mary of Scotland (1936), Quality Street (1937) and the now- classic Bringing Up Baby (1938).
With so many flops, she came to be labeled "box-office poison." She decided to go back to Broadway to star in "The Philadelphia Story" (1938), and was rewarded with a smash. She quickly bought the film rights, and so was able to negotiate her way back to Hollywood on her own terms, including her choice of director and co-stars. The film version of The Philadelphia Story (1940), was a box-office hit, and Hepburn, who won her third Oscar nomination for the film, was bankable again. For her next film, Woman of the Year (1942), she was paired with Spencer Tracy, and the chemistry between them lasted for eight more films, spanning the course of 25 years, and a romance that lasted that long off-screen. (She received her fourth Oscar nomination for the film.) Their films included the very successful Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957).
With The African Queen (1951), Hepburn moved into middle-aged spinster roles, receiving her fifth Oscar nomination for the film. She played more of these types of roles throughout the 50s, and won more Oscar nominations for many of them, including her roles in Summertime (1955), The Rainmaker (1956) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Her film roles became fewer and farther between in the 60s, as she devoted her time to her ailing partner Spencer Tracy. For one of her film appearances in this decade, in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), she received her ninth Oscar nomination. After a five-year absence from films, she then made Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), her last film with Tracy and the last film Tracy ever made; he died just weeks after finishing it. It garnered Hepburn her tenth Oscar nomination and her second win. The next year, she did The Lion in Winter (1968), which brought her her eleventh Oscar nomination and third win.
In the 70s, she turned to making made-for-TV films, with The Glass Menagerie (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975) and The Corn Is Green (1979). She still continued to make an occasional appearance in feature films, such as Rooster Cogburn (1975), with John Wayne, and On Golden Pond (1981), with Henry Fonda. This last brought her her twelfth Oscar nomination and fourth win - the latter currently still a record for an actress.
She made more TV-films in the 80s, and wrote her autobiography, 'Me', in 1991. Her last feature film was Love Affair (1994), with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, and her last TV- film was One Christmas (1994). With her health declining she retired from public life in the mid-nineties. She died at the age of 96 at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tommy Peter
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Ernest A. Bachrach, By: Mary Mallory
Hollywood’s motion picture still photography defined sophisticated style, shaped personas and created the iconic image of “a movie star” as we know it today. The photographers’ dramatic lighting, dynamic compositions, artful negative retouching and artistic eyes influenced the American public’s perceptions of celebrities and their personalities. Stars were defined as sexy, glamorous, thoughtful, foreboding, all through the scintillating camerawork of these often unsung and forgotten men.
While photographers such as George Hurrell, Ruth Harriet Louise, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Lazslo Willinger and Eugene Robert Richee came to be recognized for their style as well as their artistic sensibilities, RKO’s chief photographer, Ernest Bachrach, gained fame for taking quality portraits that fitted whatever style was requested by art directors or studio publicity chiefs. His discerning eye easily captured the personal essence of the stars he shot, the most important element of a first-rate photographic image. As John Kobal quotes him in his book, “The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers, ” “Portraiture is very closely akin to cinematography. The cinematographer has very little need for accessories in the making of close-ups; all he needs is a face and some lights and shadows. And that is all the portrait artist needs. Occasionally — but only occasionally — minor props are useful.”
Ernest Bachrach was born Oct. 20, 1899, in New York, and his early years are mostly unknown, though he did sign up for duty in World War I, starting his service at New York’s Ft. Slocum.
By the early 1920s, he was a stillsman for Famous Players-Lasky at their Astoria, N.Y., studio. John Kobal describes how Gloria Swanson came to admire Bachrach’s work as he shot stills for her New York films. Photographer Robert Coburn told him that for Swanson, “There was no other photographer in the world.”
When Swanson formed her own production company in 1926 and returned to Hollywood, she hired Bachrach to shoot portraits and stills for her films, including “Queen Kelly” (1928), “Sadie Thompson, ” (1928), and “The Trespasser” (1929). After Swanson’s company folded, RKO put him in charge of their newly created portrait gallery, where he would remain for most of his career.
As David Shields relates in his book, “Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography, ” Bachrach mostly shot stars in full figure before cropping and blowing up images to create head shots, busts, and the like, as did several of his contemporaries like Max Munn Autrey, Ruth Harriet Louise and Jack Freulich. Bachrach focused on capturing expression and thought in his portraits, shaping them to suit whatever a particular medium or outlet required. His images seem alive with possibility as a result. His easygoing, friendly personality and disciplined style endeared him to stars and crew, creating a happy work environment, where his staff called him “Ernie.” His disposition and personality created a loyal, steady work force, including photographers Gaston Longet and Alexander Kahle.
While at RKO, Bachrach shot many of its outstanding stars, including Fred Astaire, Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn. He connected particularly with Hepburn, capturing her intelligence, poise and flair in expressive photographs. She comments in Kobal’s book how Bachrach and other stillsmen covered flaws and faults in many women’s faces, creating goddesses out of sometimes ordinary faces.
Bachrach sometimes thought that photographers, along with the studios pushing them to turn out portraits, settled for pretty images that failed to firmly represent a star’s essence or individuality. He described in a 1932 article for American Cinematographer called, “Personality and Pictorialism in Photography, ” what he considered quality portraiture: “A primarily pictorial representation of that person’s personality, made by means of photography.”
Bachrach continually sought to improve his craft, shooting independent work to develop his skills in all areas of photography. Hollywood Reporter stated in its May 3, 1933, issue on his innovation of setting portraits on black mounting “unusually artistic.” He received several awards for his outstanding work, including the International Award at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago for “Finest portrait work in the world.” The Artists and Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society awarded him a diploma for his “achievement in exceptional graphic studies” at the Fair.
The artist sought to inform and educate his colleagues and the public in lighting, shooting and composing excellent photographs by writing articles for such magazines as American Cinematographer, International Photographer, Popular Photography and Silver Screen. In the July 1939 edition of Silver Screen, Bachrach noted that the first question a photographer should pose to his sitter was, “To whom are you giving it?” Photographs for parents, love interests, or jobs should all be lit and shot differently. Some of his articles focused on shooting for face shapes and body shapes, as well as technical aspects.
Besides shooting portraits, Bachrach often made time to shoot stills for important or artistic RKO films, such as “King Kong, ” “Little Women, ” “Sylvia Scarlett, ” “Citizen Kane, ” “The Secret Fury, ” “The Set-Up” and ‘Holiday Affair.”
Bachrach proudly served in various capacities for Local 659, the Cameraman’s Union, serving for years on its Executive Committee and various committees. He helped establish a cameraman’s salon to provide further opportunities in bettering their skills.
Outside of work, Bachrach focused his shooting skills as the leader of RKO’s crack rifle shooting team, composed of members of the photographic staff. The disciplined shooters placed 13th out of 133 teams in the 1936 United States small bore championship series.
Besides painting with light while shooting portraits, Bachrach also dabbled in actual painting, practicing the discipline of composing art true to life with oils and watercolors as well as chemicals, silver, and light.
By the late 1930s and early 1940s, Bachrach sometimes traveled to the East Coast to shoot portraits or stills for films. While traveling, he often visited with magazine art directors and editors to discern their needs for illustrating articles and covers. He also found time to travel to San Francisco “to make portraits of Katharine Cornell and her troupe in Rose Burke, ” per the Jan. 22, 1942, Variety.
When Local 659 organized a Stills Show with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the 1940s, Bachrach often achieved recognition for his outstanding work. The photographer won certificates and first-place awards in 1942 and 1943. In 1947, Bachrach cleaned up at the last stills show, winning two first-place and two second-place awards, and the John Leroy Johnston Trophy for most popular still exhibited in the CBS Columbia Square foyer exhibit: an image of Rhonda Fleming superimposed on a human eye.
Bachrach found solace in work after his wife, Rae, died in 1949, staying busy writing articles, making portraits, and serving his union.
In October 1954, Bachrach retired from RKO after 25 years of work to go freelance and enjoy a little free time. He shot stills for “Around the World in 80 Days” and “Run of the Arrow, ” among others.
Ernest Bachrach passed away March 24, 1973, virtually forgotten by the film community. Thanks to the work of photography scholars like John Kobal and Mark Vieira in the 1980s-2000s, his outstanding skills are once again highlighted galleries, articles and books. While not as famous as photographers like George Hurrell, Ruth Harriet Louise, or Clarence Sinclair Bull, Ernest Bachrach ranks as their equal in creating elegant, iconic portraits defining stars’ personas to legions of movie fans around the world.
— Biography By: Mary Mallory c/o The Daily Mirror
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