Object Details
Artist
Theresa Bernstein, born Cracow, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kraków, Poland) 1890-died New York Cit
Luce Center Label
Theresa Bernstein often painted urban scenes and everyday people at play throughout the 1920s, finding inspiration in New York’s music venues. The Hot Chocolates jazz revue started in a Harlem nightclub, Connie’s Inn, and then moved to Broadway’s Hudson Theatre. Over the course of its production, Hot Chocolates featured notable jazz performers Fats Waller, Edith Wilson, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong in his Broadway debut. This painting’s lively composition and rich colors capture the syncopated elements of jazz, as well as the boisterous mood of the show itself. As Harlem Renaissance gossip columnist Geraldyn Dismond wrote in 1929, some parts of Hot Chocolates could "make even a flapper blush."
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Girard Jackson
Date
ca. 1919-1928
Object number
1998.128
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
30 1/4 x 40 in. (76.8 x 101.6 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
On View
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 33B
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Figure group
African American
Performing arts\theater\performer
Recreation\theater
Architecture Interior\civic\theater
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1998.128