Caricature of Irving Berlin

May 11 The dean of American popular song, composer-lyricist Irving Berlin wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” Arriving in New York City as a child, he worked to survive after his father died, selling newspapers, waiting tables, and plugging songs. Berlin’s first hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” became the rage in 1911; three years later, his first musical, Watch Your Step, cemented his reputation. He wrote twenty-one Broadway scores, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946), which featured Ethel Merman singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Berlin also wrote seventeen film scores, including Top Hat (1935), Holiday Inn (1947), and Easter Parade (1948).Mexican caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias, who worked in New York between 1924 and 1932, depicted Berlin with five other popular culture headliners for the March 1925 issue of Vanity Fair: heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, movie star Gloria Swanson, playwright Eugene O’Neill, Broadway star Florence Mills, and stage designer Robert Edmond Jones. (National Portrait Gallery Exhibition Label)

Irving Berlin

Exhibition Label: Born Tyumen, Russia; The dean of American popular song, composer-lyricist Irving Berlin wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” Arriving in New York City as a child, he worked to survive after his father died, selling newspapers, waiting tables, and plugging songs. Berlin’s first hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” became the rage in 1911; three years later, his first musical, Watch Your Step, cemented his reputation. He wrote twenty-one Broadway scores, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946), which featured Ethel Merman singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Berlin also wrote seventeen film scores, including Top Hat (1935), Holiday Inn (1947), and Easter Parade (1948).; Mexican caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias, who worked in New York between 1924 and 1932, depicted Berlin with five other popular culture headliners for the March 1925 issue of Vanity Fair: heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, movie star Gloria Swanson, playwright Eugene O’Neill, Broadway star Florence Mills, and stage designer Robert Edmond Jones.

Data Source: National Portrait Gallery

Artist: Miguel Covarrubias, 22 Nov 1904 - 4 Feb 1957
Publication: Vanity Fair, active 1914 - 1936
Sitter: Irving Berlin, 11 May 1888 - 22 Sep 1989

Date: 1925

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Sarah and Draper Hill

Medium: Ink and pencil on paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 30.8 × 22.6 cm (12 1/8 × 8 7/8"); Mat: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16")

Type: Drawing

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