Marian Anderson (with piano)

In 1947, the humanist photographer W. Eugene Smith began working on a story for Life magazine about major recording artists. The essay, which was published in the issue of May 26, 1951, followed musicians into a “world the public never sees” at RKO-Victor and Columbia Records studios. Smith photographed Marian Anderson multiple times. Based on the recollections of Beauford Delaney, whose painting is on view nearby, it is quite possible Smith introduced Delaney and Anderson after one such session.

This photograph grants a view of Anderson at rest during one of her recording sessions. In the end, Smith and his editors at Life opted to publish a different image, one with an emotionally fraught composition that shows the singer listening to a playback of one of her recordings.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Elizabeth Ann Hylton