Background
Ethnicity:
Adolph de Meyer had a German Jewish father and Scottish mother.
De Meyer was born in Paris, France, on September 1, 1868. He was the son of Adolphus Louis and Adele Meyer (Watson).
Adolph de Meyer sitting on a chair.
Adolph de Meyer with his photo camera.
Portrait of Adolph de Meyer.
Adolph de Meyer sitting on a chair.
Adolph de Meyer with his photo camera.
Baron and Baroness de Meyer.
Ethnicity:
Adolph de Meyer had a German Jewish father and Scottish mother.
De Meyer was born in Paris, France, on September 1, 1868. He was the son of Adolphus Louis and Adele Meyer (Watson).
Adolph de Meyer started to interest in photography at an early age. He was educated in Dresden, Germany.
De Meyer relocated from Dresden to London in 1895. Between 1898 and 1913 he resided in fashionable Cadogan Gardens, London, and from 1903 to 1907 his artworks were published in Alfred Stieglitz's quarterly Camera Work. In 1903, de Meyer got in touch with Alfred Stieglitz and became associated with the Photo-Secession.
He photographed Vaslav Nijinsky, the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century, and other members of Diaghilev’s "Ballets Russes" when "L’après-midi d’un faune" opened in Paris in 1912. In his numerous photos of Nijinsky, de Meyer captured not only the similarity and subtlety of the Russian danseur noble, but also transported the viewer into Nijinsky’s world of fantasy and grace.
On the onset of the First World War, de Meyer moved with his wife to New York City, where Adolph de Meyer’s first photograph was published in Vogue magazine. In 1914 publisher Condé Nast appointed de Meyer as Vogue magazine’s first full-time photographer, concurrently working for Vanity Fair. He held his position in Vogue until 1921.
When de Meyer began working at Vogue, there was not yet a genre called "fashion photography", models and clothes had been mostly represented through drawings. De Meyer was instrumental in introducing the new style, and his fashion photographs became known for their bold use of fabrics, soft focus, and for the lifeless, statue-like quality in which he rendered his models.
In 1922 the artist became the Harper's Bazaar chief photographer in Paris, spending the next 16 years there. After his travels in Europe, he relocated to the United States. In 1938, Adolph de Meyer settled in Hollywood. Today, only a few of his prints survive, most having been destroyed during the Second World War.
Adolph de Meyer was one of the most outstanding photographers in the early 20th century. He depicted such celebrities as Mary Pickford, Billie Burke, Irene Castle, John Barrymore, Ruth St. Denis, Rita Lydig, Luisa Casati, Lillian Gish, King George V of the United Kingdom, and Queen Mary.
De Meyer became an eminent photographer of Vaslav Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes, and also a dedicated and skilled pioneer in the use of the autochrome process of colour photography. Cecil Beaton, an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, once dubbed him "The Debussy of photography."
Charlie Chaplin
Ann Andrews
Mae Murray
Träumerei
The Silver Cap
Portrait of Josephine Baker
Claude Monet
Advertisement for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics
Aida
Advertisement for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics
Plate #3, L'Après-midi d'un faune
The Nymphenburg Figure
Un Cantique
Guitar Player of Seville
A Street in China
From the Shores of the Bosphorus
Still Life
The Cup
Egyptian guide
Gladys Lloyd Robinson
Model in an evening gown
Dining room in the Vaneau, Paris
Portrait of the actress Anita Louise
Elderly Woman with a Girl
Water Lilies
Roses in vase
Ballet Dancer
Serge Lifar, Bacchus et Ariane
Nijinsky and Karsavina in Costume
The skier
Mary Pickford portrait
Adolph de Meyer joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1893.
On June 25, 1899, de Meyer married Olga Caracciolo at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, Cadogan Square, in London, England. Caracciolo was an Italian noblewoman and this was the second marriage for her. However, it must be noted that the de Meyers' marriage was one of convenience rather than romantic love, as they were both homosexual.
As Adolph de Meyer wrote in his unpublished autobiographical novel, before they got married, he explained to Olga Caracciolo that "the real meaning of love shorn of any kind of sensuality". He continued, "Marriage based too much on love and unrestrained passion has rarely a chance to be lasting, whilst perfect understanding and companionship, on the contrary, generally make the most durable union."
In 1916 the de Meyers took the new names of Mahrah and Gayne, on the advice of an astrologer. His wife died in 1931, and Baron Adolph de Meyer became romantically involved with a young German, Ernest Frohlich. At first, de Meyer hired him as a chauffeur and later adopted as his son. He became named Baron Ernest Frohlich de Meyer.
