Linda Darnell

Luce Center Label

Justin McCarthy painted many images of movie stars based on photographs from newspapers and magazines. The actress Linda Darnell made her movie debut in 1939 at the age of sixteen, becoming Hollywood's youngest leading lady. McCarthy painted the young star with flushed cheeks and a sneering expression, perhaps to mock her reputation as the "girl with the perfect face." She wears a revealing dress and no jewelry, evoking a famous scene from her 1949 movie A Letter to Three Wives: When told "If I was you, I'd show more of what I got. Maybe wear something with beads," Linda replied, "What I got don't need beads." (Classic Movie Favorites Web site, Linda Darnell Biography, 2002)

Title

Linda Darnell

Artist

Justin McCarthy

Date

1944

Location

1. Smithsonian American Art Museum
2. Luce Foundation Center
3. 3rd Floor
4. 23B

Dimensions

16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm.)

Copyright

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson

Mediums

oil

Mediums Description

oil on canvas board

Classifications

Painting

Keywords

• Performing arts – theater – performer
• Portrait female – Darnell, Linda

Object Number

1986.65.128

Palette

Linked Open Data

Linked Open Data URI

Justin McCarthy, Linda Darnell, 1944, oil on canvas board, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.128