Chorus Captain

This is a painting by American artist Walt Kuhn. He depicts a true reflection of the performer's feelings: such performers would only working there to earn a living during the Great Depression. This woman, whose face has been painted and head crowned with an ostrich plumage, appears tired and worn down. The emptiness in her gaze and her overall glum facial expression, which you would never see on stage, depicts the reality of these women's lives: they were underpaid, overworked and living a life they didn't enjoy. Khun, who had a major fascination with theater that started when he was a young boy doing menial tasks like delivering costumes, liked to create memorable portraits of entertainers by illustrating his women in an intimate and expressionistic manner to express a figure's emotional experience as opposed to the impressions that other people had of them.