Carl van Vechten   [1880-1964]

Graphic Artist

Carl Van Vechten was an enormously creative artist, becoming a noted author, and later, at age 52, a superb portrait photographer. It is unusual for an artist to follow two distinctively different career paths and achieve fame in each area.

Van Vechten is still best known for his book, published in 1926, which portrayed African-American society in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s. He titled the book with the then and now derogatory title, “Nigger Heaven”. The book recently, in 2012, received a lot of attention because of Emily Bernhard’s book entitled, “Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance”, published by Yale University Press.

Van Vechten was considered a patron of the Harlem Renaissance, and his novel was set in that era. Black literati of that era were part of his circle, and included Langston Hughes, Zora Neil Hurston, Countee Cullen, Nella Larston and James Weldon Johnston. However, the book derives its notoriety from the title chosen by Van Vechten.

“Nigger Heaven” was not against blacks, and was not considered racist. What set of a firestorm was the title, which to this day continues a fascination with Van Vechten.  In 1951, Avon Publishing planned a paperback edition of the book with a changed title. Van Vechten was furious, and insisted that the title not be changed. As a result the paperback edition was never published.

Some noted people in the black community denounced the title among them W.E.B. Dubois, and others. Others were less critical because they knew Van Vechten was not a racist. When the book was published, the term “nigger” may also not have been as derogatory as it became later in the 1950’s. I suspect Van Vechten knew that the title would give his book notoriety, and would ensure that the message in the book was disseminated, and possibly also that he would be remembered.

Van Vechten wrote a number of other books, such as “Peter Whiffle”, “The Tattooed Countess”, “Parties”, and others. What made him famous or infamous as an author is “Nigger Heaven”.

In 1932, only six years after the publication of “Nigger Heaven”, he decided to not write another book, but become a portrait photographer. He was 52 at the time and would live for another 32 years, plenty of time to practice his new art form, photography.

As a portrait photographer he memorialized numerous famous people in the performing, graphic and literary arts and sports. People who were photographed by Van Vechten included:  Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, James Baldwin, Tallulah Bankhead, Thomas Hart Benton, Marlon Brando, Erskine Caldwell, Truman Capote, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Ella Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Sidney Lumet, Norman Mailer, Henri Matisse, W. Somerset Maugham, Joan Miro, Georgia O’Keeffe, Laurence Olivier, Christoffer Plummer, Leontyne Price, Diego Ravera, Paul Robeson, Cesar Romero, George Schuyler, Beverly Sills, Gertrude Stein, James Stewart, Alfred Stieglitz, Gore Vidal, Orson Welles, Thornton Wiles, and others. 

Carl Van Vechten was born on June 17, 1880 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His father was in the lumber mill business. Carl was educated at and graduated from the University of Chicago. Following graduation he joined the Chicago American as a writer, and remained there until 1906. He then moved to New York City and was hired as the assistant music critic at the New York Times [NYT].  After one year he took a leave of absence and moved to Paris to study opera. He returned to the NYT in 1907, where he stayed on a full time basis until 1914 and part time thereafter. He continued his work as an author until he decided to become a photographer in 1932.

In 1907, Van Vechten married his long-time friend from Iowa, Anna Snyder. The marriage did not last long and was dissolved in 1912. Two years later, in 1914 he married the actress Fania Marinoff, and remained married to her until the end of his life in 1964.

At least two book length biographies have been written about him. The first one came out four years following his death. In 1968, “Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades”, by Bruce Kellner was published. Forty four years later, in 2012 another one followed, and was entitled,  “Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance”, by Emily Bernhard.

Little is known about Van Vechten’s  Dutch background. There are many Dutch Americans in Iowa, his birthplace. But it is unknown whether his father was a member of the New Dutch who came over to Iowa in the nineteenth century, or of the Old Dutch who arrived in New York in the seventeenth century. The Van Vechten name is quite common among the Old Dutch and he probably emerged from that stream of Dutch Americans.

The Los Angeles Times reviewer of Bernhard’s book referred to Van Vechten as, “An idiosyncratic white man, of Dutch descent, Van Vechten dedicated his life’s work to, as Hughes once put it, ‘all things Negro’—literature, theater, ragtime, jazz and blues—nurturing arts and alliances, but not without acrimony”.

Carl Van Vechten passed away on December 21, 1964. He was a fascinating personality, and lived an artistic and productive life.

 

 REFERENCES

Portraits by Carl Van Vechten Biography, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/vanvechten/vvbio.html

Lynell George, Review: “Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance” by Emily Bernhard, Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2012,  http://latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-emily-bernhard-2012 (link no longer active)

Carl Van Vechten,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Van_Vechten

James Campbell, “A Passion for Blackness, Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance”, Wall Street Journal, March 3-4, 2012, page C5.

 

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