RUSSELL, Lillian (Pastel)
Description:
Bust-length, pastel on ecru-board, 66cm x 40.6cm (26” x 16”). Falsely signed ‘Miller Ury’ upper right.
Location:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., U.S.A. (N.P.G. 70.53.)
Provenance:
The artist, Jessica Dragonette, National Portrait Gallery purchase ($3500.00).
Bibliography:
Catalogue: ‘This New Man – A Discourse in Portraits’, National Portrait Gallery, 1968, edited by J. Benjamin Townsend, p.206, illustrated.
Catalogue Permanent Collection: Illustrated Checklist, 1978. Compiled by L.T. Neumaier.
Lillian Russell was born in Clinton, Iowa on December 4, 1861 but brought up and educated in Chicago. She studied music under Leopold Damrosch. She was married four times, lastly to Alexander P. Moore, the editor of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Leader, on June 11, 1912. She sang in theatrical and opera companies, and frequently appeared in vaudeville. She was active in the Red Cross and the Liberty Loan campaigns during the First World War. She died on June 6, 1922.
Bibliography:
P. Morell, Lillian Russell: The Era of Plush, New York, 1940.
Armond Fields, Lillian Russell: A Biography of “America’s Beauty”, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1999.
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