Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Born New Orleans, Louisiana
- One of the most influential artists in jazz history, Louis Armstrong learned to play the cornet as an impoverished New Orleans youth. By the early 1920s, he was working in riverboat dance bands when King Oliver hired him to play with his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. Armstrong then struck out on his own, playing with all the leading bands of the era and making the recordings that established him as the first great jazz soloist. He had a formative influence on jazz, both as a solo instrumentalist and as a vocalist, where he was as skilled at scat singing as he was at melody. His larger-than-life personality—instantly recognizable not only on stage but in movies, radio, television, and through cultural diplomacy—made Armstrong a major international figure in the promotion of American popular music.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Anton Bruehl, 1900 - 10 Aug 1982
- Sitter
- Louis Armstrong, 4 Aug 1901 - 6 Jul 1971
- Date
- 1935
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 24.8 x 19.4cm (9 3/4 x 7 5/8")
- Sheet: 25.7 x 20.2cm (10 1/8 x 7 15/16")
- Mount: 27.9 x 22.8cm (11 x 9")
- Mat: 55.9 x 40.6cm (22 x 16")
- Frame: 59.7 x 43.8 x 3.8cm (23 1/2 x 17 1/4 x 1 1/2")
- Type
- Photograph
