Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler
In 1922, Al Frueh published Stage Folk, a portfolio of thirty-seven linocut caricatures, which refined his portrait images into even more abbreviated figures. Comedienne Marie Dressler, for instance, was pared down to a few thick, curving contours. The prints were widely admired and exhibited at the Anderson Gallery. "He deals in salients almost exclusively," noted modern art critic Willard Huntington Wright, "and so keen is his observation that he is able to sum up a personality in a single feature or lineament." By summarizing the public image rather than the individual behind it, Frueh helped to establish a new approach to satiric portraiture.


Marie Dressler 1869-1934
Al Frueh (1880–1968)
Linocut, circa 1915-1922
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of the children of Al Frueh:
Barbara Frueh Bornemann, Robert Frueh, and Alfred Frueh Jr.


NEXT portrait

BACK to "Stage Folk"



Past Exhibitions | National Portrait Gallery Home