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

The object in the museum catalogue

A costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for an unidentified female character in the musical Porgy and Bess. The drawing depicts a woman standing with her left hand hanging behind her skirt and her right hand in her dress pocket. She wears a cream handkerchief tied at the back of her head and a short-sleeved, knee-length dress made from a brown, purple, and teal floral print fabric with a taupe background. There are patch pockets sewn at each front side below the fitted waist, which are circular in shape and are gathered and tied at the top opening. The woman's shoes are dark brown moccasin-style loafers. 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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1995
• Created by: Judy Dearing, American, 1940 - 1995
• Type: design drawings
• Medium: graphite, watercolor, and pigment on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 5/8 × 11 in. (34.6 × 27.9 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Topic: Opera (Music)
• Object number: 2014.128.7
• 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.