Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Born Beckwith (now Beckwourth), California
- The top-ranked woman in U.S. tennis from 1936 to 1940, Alice Marble is credited with pioneering the aggressive and athletic style of play that is now standard in women’s tennis. Having excelled in various sports as a child, Marble took up tennis at the age of fifteen, learning the game on a public court in San Francisco. Formal coaching improved her technique and she quickly amassed victories in a string of junior championships before health problems forced her to abandon play for several seasons. When she returned to the courts in 1936, Marble won her first United States national championship and proceeded to dominate women’s amateur tennis for the next four years, winning three more U.S. singles titles (1938, 1939, and 1940) and the coveted Wimbledon crown (1939). She also captured numerous women’s doubles and mixed doubles championships before turning professional in 1940 and continuing play on the exhibition circuit.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Harry Warnecke, 1900 - 1984
- Robert F. Cranston, 26 Jul 1897 - 1978
- Sitter
- Alice Marble, 28 Sep 1913 - 13 Dec 1990
- Date
- 1939
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Color carbro print
- Dimensions
- Image: 41.8 x 31.5 cm (16 7/16 x 12 3/8")
- Sheet: 43.6 x 32.6 cm (17 3/16 x 12 13/16")
- Mat: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22")
- Type
- Photograph
