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Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida

Portrait of an older woman holding a mirror and makeup pad, sitting in a dark dressing room in a pink slip and a blue and red skirt. Her flesh is mottled and pasty white, its contours in dark shadows that make it appear almost bruised. She gazes to the left forlornly.
© The Art Institute of Chicago.

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  • Portrait of an older woman holding a mirror and makeup pad, sitting in a dark dressing room in a pink slip and a blue and red skirt. Her flesh is mottled and pasty white, its contours in dark shadows that make it appear almost bruised. She gazes to the left forlornly.

Date:

1929–30

Artist:

Ivan Albright (American, 1897–1983)

About this artwork

Holding a mirror, powdering her chest, and surrounded with accoutrements of fashion and beauty, the figure portrayed here does not necessarily inspire thoughts of youth and vibrancy. Rather, as one critic put it when this painting was first exhibited, he saw a “woman with flesh the color of a corpse drowned six weeks.” Ida Rogers herself was 19 years old at the time she posed for the artist. With his hyperbolic version of realism, Ivan Albright laboriously transformed his sitter into a vision of his own making. The painting is less a portrait than a meticulous musing on the passage of time and the relationship—both powerful and fragile—between mind and body.

Status

On View, Gallery 262

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Ivan Albright

Title

Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1929–1930

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed lower right: Ivan Le Lorraine Albright

Dimensions

142.9 × 119.2 cm (56 1/4 × 47 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ivan Albright

Reference Number

1977.34

Copyright

© The Art Institute of Chicago.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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