Vintage Photographic Portrait of American Jazz Trumpeter Henry Georges Walter, Inscribed in 1927
- SIGNED
- [Paris: 1927]
[Paris: 1927]. Original silver-gelatin photographic print, 7" x 6". Mounted on thin board, 13" x 9-3/4", signed "A. Feny" on mount below image (see note). Dated in the subject's hand, "17/8/27 - Paris," and inscribed: "To the Beloved couple Grover [?] & Nettie hoping you will continue having success and making friends," signed in full. Some abrasion to the mount, especially at corners; small flaw to image at upper left corner, still Very Good or better.
A lovely jazz-age portrait of Henry Georges Walter playing his trumpet, probably in a Paris nightclub around 1927. Walter (b.1902) was born in Alabama and studied music in the renowned Harlem studio of Isabel Talafierro-Spiller, but seems to have spent most of his performing career in Europe. A brief notice in the Baltimore Afro-American for Oct. 19, 1929 advises that Walter "will return to America in October... after being eleven years in Europe;" he was at this time performing with Opal Cooper's "International Five," a popular Paris quintet which also included Samuel Richardson, Harvey White, and Charlie Lewis. Little else is known of Walter; the 1930 U.S. Census finds him living as a lodger on 151st Street in Harlem, with the occupation of "musician," but we find no further record of him after this.
The photograph is titled "A Fény" with an address in Hungarian at left: "Váczi U [Vaci Utca] 11/B." The title, which translates to "The Light," is possibly a reference to the influential Hungarian photographic journal of the same name, published in Budapest from 1906-1912. We have been unable to satisfactorily identify the photographer.
A lovely jazz-age portrait of Henry Georges Walter playing his trumpet, probably in a Paris nightclub around 1927. Walter (b.1902) was born in Alabama and studied music in the renowned Harlem studio of Isabel Talafierro-Spiller, but seems to have spent most of his performing career in Europe. A brief notice in the Baltimore Afro-American for Oct. 19, 1929 advises that Walter "will return to America in October... after being eleven years in Europe;" he was at this time performing with Opal Cooper's "International Five," a popular Paris quintet which also included Samuel Richardson, Harvey White, and Charlie Lewis. Little else is known of Walter; the 1930 U.S. Census finds him living as a lodger on 151st Street in Harlem, with the occupation of "musician," but we find no further record of him after this.
The photograph is titled "A Fény" with an address in Hungarian at left: "Váczi U [Vaci Utca] 11/B." The title, which translates to "The Light," is possibly a reference to the influential Hungarian photographic journal of the same name, published in Budapest from 1906-1912. We have been unable to satisfactorily identify the photographer.