Pele de Lappe Self-Portrait
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
Object Details
- Date
- 1938
- Artist
- Pele deLappe, 1916 - 2007
- Sitter
- Pele deLappe, 1916 - 2007
- Exhibition Label
- Pele deLappe shared with many women artists of her generation the challenge of maintaining an artistic career while raising children and making a living. This 1938 graphite drawing, conveying both her beauty and her self-assurance, asserts an auspicious beginning. The San Francisco-born deLappe met Diego Rivera and became a sketching companion of his wife, Frida Kahlo. In the early 1930s, deLappe studied at the Art Students League in New York City, but she returned to San Francisco in 1934, planning to concentrate on social-realist themes. Her style, however, reflected the influence of the Mexican muralists, including Rivera and her close friend David Alfaro Siqueiros, more than the quick-sketch approach of her New York compatriots. Her lithographs of the 1930s had a muralist’s sensibility, with simplified compositions, broad planes, low viewpoints, and heroic figural forms. This statically posed and sharply outlined self- portrait shares a similar monumentality.
- Pele deLappe, al igual que muchas mujeres de su generación, se enfrentó al reto de cultivar una carrera artística a la vez que criaba a sus hijos y se ganaba la vida. Creado en 1938, este dibujo en grafito capta su belleza y seguridad, anunciando un buen comienzo. DeLappe, nacida en San Francisco, conocía a Diego Rivera y solía reunirse a dibujar con su esposa, Frida Kahlo. A principios de los años treinta, DeLappe estudió en la Liga de Estudiantes de Arte de Nueva York, pero regresó a San Francisco en 1934, planeando dedicarse a temas social-realistas. Sin embargo, su estilo reflejaba la influencia de los muralistas mexicanos, entre ellos Rivera y su buen amigo David Alfaro Siqueiros, más que el estilo de bocetos rápidos de sus paisanos neoyorquinos. Sus litografías de la década de 1930 muestran una sensibilidad muralista, con composiciones simplificadas, amplios planos, punto de vista bajo y figuras de aliento heroico. Este autorretrato de pose estática y contornos definidos comparte esa estética monumental.
- Topic
- Self-portrait
- Pele deLappe: Visual Arts\Artist
- Pele deLappe: Female
- Portrait
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; the Ruth Bowman and Harry Kahn Twentieth-Century American Self-Portrait Collection
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Object number
- S/NPG.2002.290
- Type
- Drawing
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Estate of Pele deLappe
- Medium
- Graphite on paper (transparent)
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 34.8 x 27.5cm (13 11/16 x 10 13/16")
- Mat: 46.4 x 40.6cm (18 1/4 x 16")
- Metadata Usage
- Usage conditions apply
- Record ID
- npg_S_NPG.2002.290