'Rita de Acosta Lydig' by Adolphe de Meyer

• Baron Adolphe de Meyer

• Henry Clarke leg, 1997
• circa 1913
• Platinum print
• GALH1185T
• Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris

Rita de Acosta (1879-1929) arose from Spanish parents who settled in New York. She was one of the foremost women of the American and international high society, renowned for her eccentricity. Diana Vreeland revived the public interest in de Acosta during the exhibition “American Women of Style” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1975. Rita drew her fashion designs herself, and commissioned the fashion house Callot Soeurs to make them reality, thus funding the fashion house. She wears here an evening dress, low cut in the back, which provoked a scandal at the opera house. Far from more well-known portraits, the Baron de Meyer insists on this perfect back which Rita de Acosta emphasizes, all in realizing the profile of this exceptionally beautiful woman. This portrait was published in Harper's Bazaar in March, 1917. The medium of the platinum print has subtle qualities which allow the photographer to give a nuanced depiction of the subject. Another copy is preserved in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Notice's author : Sylvie Lécallier