Costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for Annie in Porgy and Bess: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for the character Annie in the musical Porgy and Bess. The drawing (a) is accompanied by a paper tag with an attached fabric swatch (b). The drawing depicts a woman standing with her left hand at her side and her right hand behind her waist. She wears a salmon colored hat with a short crown and a wide brim, with a pink and purple flower stuck into a white hatband. Her salmon colored drop-waist dress falls to her mid-calf, with a gray waistband and gray lace collar and cuffs. Her gray shoes have a short heel and a strap across the foot. She has on a beaded necklace and carries a gray handbag in her right hand. The woman and her clothing are outlined in graphite with watercolor and unidentified pigment shading. The stamp for the United Scenic Artists Local 829 is in black ink in the lower left facing corner, with Dearing's signature in black ink below the stamp. The reverse is blank.

A paper tag (b) with a salmon-colored fabric swatch stapled to it accompanies the sketch. Various notes are handwritten on the tag. The reverse is blank.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1995
• Created by: Judy Dearing, American, 1940 - 1995
• Type: design drawings
• Medium: (a): graphite, watercolor, and pigment on paper;
• Medium: (b): graphite and ink on paper, synthetic fiber, metal
• Dimensions: H x W (a): 13 3/4 × 10 7/8 in. (34.9 × 27.6 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (b): 5 13/16 × 3 1/2 × 1/2 in. (14.7 × 8.9 × 1.3 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Topic: Opera (Music)
• Object number: 2014.128.5ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.