Djuna Barnes

Berenice Abbott American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 852

Abbott lived with the American writer Djuna Barnes when she moved from Ohio to Greenwich Village in 1918, and the two women remained friends, and occasional romantic rivals, throughout their lives. In this portrait, made in Man Ray’s Paris studio, Barnes is elegantly attired and addresses the camera with a smoldering gaze above a slight smile. A decade later, Barnes would publish Nightwood (1936), a classic of lesbian fiction inspired by her tormented affair with the American artist Thelma Wood (1901–1970), who also had a brief relationship with Abbott.

Djuna Barnes, Berenice Abbott (American, Springfield, Ohio 1898–1991 Monson, Maine), Gelatin silver print

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