Florence Meyer
{{Short description|American photographer (1911–1962)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Hatnote|This article is about the American photographer born in 1911; for the American philanthropist born in 1875, see Florence Meyer Blumenthal.}}{{Infobox person
| name = Florence Meyer Homolka
| image = Photo of Florence Meyer.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Photo of Meyer by Man Ray
| birth_name = Florence Meyer
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|1|22}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1962|11|27|1911|1|22}}
| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.
| occupation = Portrait photographer and socialite
| spouse = {{marriage|Oscar Homolka
|1939|1948|end=divorce}}
| children = 2
| father = Eugene Meyer
| mother = Agnes Elizabeth Ernst
| relations = Katharine Graham (sister)
Marc Eugene Meyer (grandfather)
Joseph Newmark (great-grandfather)
}}
Florence Meyer Homolka (January 22, 1911 – November 27, 1962) was an American portrait photographer and socialite. She was married to the actor Oscar Homolka.
Early life and education
She was born in New York City, the eldest daughter of Eugene Meyer (1875–1959), future publisher of the Washington Post, and Agnes Elizabeth (Ernst) Meyer (1887–1970).{{Cite news |date=January 2, 1929 |title=Florence Meyer is Debutante |pages=16 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115213787/florence-meyer-is-debutante/ |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Along with her four siblings, she was baptized as a Lutheran but attended an Episcopal church.Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff [https://books.google.com/books?id=SiV_HXPaodcC&dq=Katharine%20Graham&pg=PA16 The New CEOs : Women, African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies] Published: March 18, 2014 |Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
She attended the Madeira School{{Cite news |date=August 22, 1939 |title=Wedding in Mt. Kisco for Florence Meyer; Publisher's Daughter Is Bride of Oscar Homolka, Actor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/08/22/archives/wedding-in-mt-kisco-for-florence-meyer-publishers-daughter-is-bride.html |access-date=December 26, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} and Bryn Mawr College, graduated from Radcliffe College.{{Cite news |date=August 22, 1939 |title=Florence Meyer Married to Actor at Parents' Home |pages=5 |work=Poughkeepsie Eagle-News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115213957/florence-meyer-married-to-actor-at/ |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Photography
Meyer photographed numerous artists, playwrights, actors, writers, composers, musicians, statesmen, film stars, and other celebrities of her day. Her work included portraits of Van Cliburn,Homolka, Florence Meyer (c. 1958). [https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2015.86?destination=edan-search/catalog_of_america%3Fpage%3D82%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Donline_visual_material%253Atrue "Van Cliburn"] (photograph), National Portrait Gallery. James Agee, Thomas Mann, Constantin Brâncuși, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Vladimir Horowitz, Lion Feuchtwanger, Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood and of fellow photographers Edward Steichen, Walker Evans, and Brassaï.{{cite web |date=October 25, 1946 |title=Florence Meyer (Homolka) by Man Ray |url=http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=3516 |accessdate=July 31, 2015 |publisher=Getty Collection Online}}
Meyer was a close friend and protégée of Man Ray, and in 1946 took the photographs for the double wedding portraits of Man Ray and Juliet Browner, and Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.{{Cite news |last=La Force |first=Thessaly |date=May 20, 2021 |title=When Two Artists Meet, and Then Marry |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/t-magazine/artist-marriage-albers.html |access-date=December 26, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} Meyer exhibited her photographs at the Palos Verdes Art Gallery in 1950{{Cite news |date=November 16, 1950 |title=Exhibit Tea |pages=1 |work=Palos Verdes Peninsula News |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=PVPN19501116.2.12&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Florence+Homolka------- |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} and at Los Angeles City Hall in 1952.{{Cite news |date=July 24, 1952 |title=Photo Exhibit To Open Monday At Tower Gallery |pages=6 |work=Palos Verdes Peninsula News |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=PVPN19520724.2.43&srpos=7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Florence+Homolka------- |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}
Meyer played the Juggler and the Priestess of the Golden Calf in the original Broadway cast of Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road (1937). She was the author of Focus on Art, published posthumously in 1962, with a foreword by Aldous Huxley.{{Cite book |last=Homolka |first=Florence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbMlAQAAIAAJ |title=Focus on Art |date=1962 |publisher=I. Obolensky |isbn=978-0-8392-1034-4 |language=en}}
Personal life
In 1939, Meyer married the widowed Austrian character actor Oscar Homolka (1898–1978).{{Cite news |date=August 22, 1939 |title=Actor Weds Florence Meyer |pages=6 |work=The Daily Item |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115214345/actor-weds-florence-meyer/ |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} They had two sons, Vincent and Laurence. They divorced in 1946,{{Cite news |date=August 10, 1946 |title=Hubby Didn't Want to be Married |pages=52 |work=Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115214134/hubby-didnt-want-to-be-married/ |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} but the financial details of the divorce were contested as late as 1952.{{Cite news |date=May 3, 1952 |title=Actor Homolka, ex-wife settle suit |pages=6 |work=Daily News |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DNLA19520503.1.6&srpos=25&e=-------en--20--21--txt-txIN-Florence+Homolka------- |access-date=December 26, 2022 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} She died from a respiratory attack in Santa Monica in 1962, at the age of 51.{{Cite news |date=November 28, 1962 |title=Mrs. Florence Homolka, 51, Daughter of Eugene Meyer |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/11/28/archives/mrs-florence-homolka-51-daughter-of-eugene-meyer.html |access-date=December 26, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=3516 Getty Museum biography]
- {{IMDb name|id=10973627}}
- {{Playbill person}}
- Man Ray (1946), [https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cR5dE8j "Vincent, Florence, Larry Homolka"] (photograph), Centre Pompidou
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Florence}}
Category:American people of German descent
Category:American people of German-Jewish descent
Category:People from Greater Los Angeles
Category:Photographers from New York City
Category:20th-century American women photographers
Category:20th-century American photographers