Costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for Bess 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 Bess in the musical Porgy and Bess. The drawing depicts a woman standing with her left hand at her side and her right hand on her hip. She wears a short-sleeved, low neck white peasant top tucked into a dark blue knee-length wrap skirt, and light brown high-heeled pumps. The woman and her clothing are outlined in graphite with her hair colored in with black ink and other shading done with an unidentified pigment. 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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1995
• Created by: Judy Dearing, American, 1940 - 1995
• Type: design drawings
• Medium: graphite, pigment, and ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 5/8 × 10 15/16 in. (34.6 × 27.8 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Topic: Opera (Music)
• Object number: 2014.128.27
• 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.