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Claude Cahun. Solange Roussot in Barbe Bleue. 1929.

photo by Herbert List

Kati Horna [Woman with Mask], Mexico, 1963

Josephine Premice (1926-2001), the splendid Tony-nominated actress, singer and dancer was born 88 years ago today in Brooklyn, New York. Diahann Carroll, her best friend for more than four decades, called the Haitian-American aesthete “a naturally elegant woman who had exquisite taste in everything in life” and credited her with her fashion advice that she still uses. Ms. Premice was also the mother of novelist and television producer (“A Different World”) Susan Fales-Hill who wrote a fantastic memoir about her mother called “Always Wear Joy.” In this photo, Ms. Premice is seen tying the ribbon on her high-heeled shoes just before a performance in May 1951. Photo: Kurt Hutton/Stringer/Getty Images.

Minnie Foster

(that’s the Duke of Windsor, loves)

Gladys Calthrop sketches

Miss Marian Bixler, 1919 

Alfred Flechtheim

Florence Henri

Osbert Sitwell and Violet Trefusis

Portrait de femme, 1938 (Florence Henri)

A dynamic duo from the New Objectivity party at the Bauhaus, 1925.

“I dance to express myself. I dance for my heart, blood, imagination…I do not believe that dancing should tell a story or have a meaning; nor do I feel that a dancer must draw upon his experiences to express fully dances of great joy or great sorrow…”

LA COMTESSE DE FLEURY 1952  

Nelly and Theo van Doesburg, their dog Dada, and dancer Kamares, 1925.

This photograph recently sold at auction for approximately $10,000.