Two large original vintage matte-finish 14 x 17 portraits of Elsa Einstein, wife of Albert Einstein, by E. Willard Spurr, both signed and dated by the photographer at the lower left: "Portrait by E. Willard Spurr, Pasadena, Calif. Feb. 1931." Einstein is shown in one portrait standing, wearing a hat and holding a purse and a lorgnette, and in the other portrait at a closer range, without her hat. In fine condition, with trimmed borders.
Ervin Willard Spurr was born in 1869 in New York and grew up in Iowa, where he established his reputation as a photographer, before moving his studio to Pasadena. He was noted for his technical accomplishments as a portrait photographer, and photographed subjects including stage and film actors of the day, as well as Native American actors (a collection of these photographs is held at the Library of Congress). In 1931, Spurr photographed Albert Einstein when Einstein was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Einstein was attracted by the research being done there, particularly at the Mount Wilson observatory—which housed the world's largest telescope at the time—and the theoretical processing of its astronomical discoveries.
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