Object Details
- Artist
- Joseph Grant, 15 May 1908 - 6 May 2005
- Sitter
- Marie Dressler, 9 Nov 1869 - 28 Jul 1934
- Exhibition Label
- Born Ontario, Canada
- With her remarkably expressive face and gift for comic timing, Marie Dressler delighted film audiences of the early 1930s while portraying larger-than-life female characters. Dressler began her long and difficult path to Hollywood success with several decades as a stage actor in repertory theater, vaudeville, and Broadway shows. A string of failed productions and lack of steady work left Dressler at a low ebb as she neared her sixtieth year. It was then that she suddenly rocketed to stardom in a series of talking pictures. In 1930 she stole the limelight from Greta Garbo in Anna Christie and won an Academy Award for the tragicomedy Min and Bill. This caricature depicts Dressler in another highly popular film, Dinner at Eight (1933), in which she played a faded actress facing destitution—a role she had recently played, and escaped, in real life.
- Nacida en Ontario, Canadá
- Con un rostro sumamente expresivo y un gran sentido del ritmo en la comedia, Marie Dressler deleitó a los amantes del cine a principios de los años treinta con personajes de carácter formidable. Había comenzado su largo y difícil camino hacia Hollywood varias décadas antes, haciendo teatro de repertorio, vodevil y shows en Broadway. Desalentada por una sucesión de producciones fallidas y falta de trabajo fijo, Dressler estaba por cumplir sus sesenta años cuando, en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, saltó al estrellato en una serie de películas sonoras. De hecho, en 1930 desbancó a Greta Garbo en Anna Christie para llevarse el Oscar por la tragicomedia Min and Bill. Esta caricatura de Dressler alude a otra película de gran popularidad, Dinner at Eight (1933); en ella interpretó a una actriz en decadencia que se enfrenta a la miseria, papel que ya le había tocado en la vida real y que felizmente pudo superar.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Carol Grubb and Jennifer Grant Castrup
- 1933
- Object number
- NPG.93.425
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Drawing
- Medium
- India ink and pencil on illustration board
- Dimensions
- Image: 20cm x 12.2cm (7 7/8" x 4 13/16")
- Sheet: 28.3cm x 19.9cm (11 1/8" x 7 13/16")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry\Necklace
- Costume\Jewelry\Earring
- Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Chair
- Costume\Headgear\Hat
- Caricature
- Costume\Stole\Fur
- Marie Dressler: Female
- Marie Dressler: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Theater\Stage actor
- Marie Dressler: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Film\Movie actor
- Marie Dressler: Performing arts awards\Academy Award
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.93.425
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4da1de1b9-d9f1-4f4f-90b5-77b2ad4e6a58
