Aline Bernstein (December 22, 1880 – September 7, 1955) was an American set designer and
costume designer
A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...
. She and
Irene Lewisohn
Irene Lewisohn (September 5, 1886 – April 4, 1944) was the founder of the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Museum of Costume Art.
Biography
She was the daughter of Rosalie Jacobs and Leonard Lewisohn. In 1905 she and her sister, Alice Lewisohn, ...
founded the
Museum of Costume Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. Bernstein was the lover, patron, and muse of novelist
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...
.
Early life
She was born in 1880 in New York City, the daughter of Rebecca (Goldsmith) and Joseph Frankau, an actor. Joseph was a cousin of London cigar importer
Arthur Frankau
Arthur Frankau (February 1849 – 21 November 1904) was the son of Bavarian-born Joseph Frankau (previously Frankenau), a Jewish merchant who moved to London from Frankfurt in 1837. Arthur ran the firm successfully, but suffered a bad shock fr ...
and thus, by marriage, of novelist and art historian
Frank Danby, whom Aline recalled visiting as a child when Joseph Frankau was performing in London. Her family was Jewish. By the time she was 17, both of her parents had died and she was raised by her aunt, Rachel Goldsmith. Goldsmith had a theatrical boarding house on West 44th Street in New York City.
Career
![The-Children's-Hour-1935-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/The-Children%27s-Hour-1935-1.jpg)
Between 1916 and 1951, Bernstein would do set design, costuming, or both for 51 productions.
Bernstein was a theater set and costume designer for the
Neighborhood Playhouse
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
on the Lower East Side, volunteering her work to make her name.
In 1926 she struggled but prevailed in becoming the first female member of the designers union. This membership opened up opportunities for Broadway commissions. However, as a woman, she still found that it was much easier to find work as a costume designer than as a set designer.
Her career ran in phases; early on, she focused largely on costume design. After about 14 years of work, in 1930, she was able to move into set design. For about a decade, she primarily did set design work, only to return to costume design again around 1940 for the final phase of her career.
In the 1930s she also began to write, with two books published by
Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, a highly respected publisher at that time.
She was personal friends with
Alfred
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
and
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
.
Her first book, ''Three Blue Suits'', helped to more firmly establish her as a designer in New York. The book included a series of three stories in which three very different men wear the same blue serge suit. The details of how each man wears — or drags (the jacket on the floor) — his suit, reveal aspects of each man's character in subtle ways. A common trope among costume designer is that costumes, if they are good, should ultimately not be noticed. In contrast, the blue suit stories reveal Bernstein's ability to discern how critical details of costume evoke, and interact with, a character, and ultimately her skill as a costume designer at making this happen effectively.
Some of her publications include:
* ''Three Blue Suits'' (collection of short stories), 1933
* ''The Journey Down'' (over her relationship with Wolfe), Knopf, 1938
* ''Miss Condon'', Knopf, 1947
* ''An Actor's Daughter'' (memoir), 1940
* ''The Martha Washington Doll Book'', 1945
* ''Masterpieces of Women's Costume of the 18th and 19th Centuries'', 1959 (published posthumously)
In 1950, Aline Bernstein finally won some hard-earned recognition. In 1949 she had designed costumes for the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
''Regina''. The music and
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
were written by
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Wo ...
but based on the play ''
The Little Foxes
''The Little Foxes'' is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman, considered a classic of 20th century drama. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 of the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the litt ...
'' by
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
, a play for which Bernstein had previously designed costumes.
Although that production of ''Regina'' (it would be regularly revived in the 20th century) ran for only a month and a half, Bernstein won a
Tony
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
for her costume design in 1950.
Personal life
Aline married Theodore F. Bernstein, a Wall Street broker, on November 19, 1902. Bernstein and her husband had two children: Theodore Frankau Bernstein (1904–1949), and Edla Cusick (1906–1983). Her marriage remained intact throughout and despite her affair with Thomas Wolfe.
Bernstein died on September 7, 1955, in New York City, aged 74.
Relationship with Thomas Wolfe
Bernstein met
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...
in 1925 aboard the
RMS ''Olympic'' when Wolfe was 25 and Bernstein 44.
Bernstein became Wolfe's lover and provided Wolfe with emotional, domestic, and financial support while he wrote his first novel, ''
Look Homeward, Angel
''Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life'' is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be a ...
'', which he dedicated to Bernstein.
Wolfe immortalized Bernstein as the character Esther Jack in his novels ''Of Time and the River
''Of Time and the River'' (subtitled ''A Legend of Man's Hunger in his Youth'') is a 1935 novel by American author Thomas Wolfe. It is a fictionalized autobiography, using the name Eugene Gant for Wolfe's, detailing the protagonist's early and ...
'', ''The Web and the Rock
''The Web and the Rock'' is an American bildungsroman novel by Thomas Wolfe, published posthumously in 1939. Like its sequel, '' You Can't Go Home Again'' (and also ''The Hills Beyond'') it was extracted by Edward Aswell from a larger manuscript af ...
'', ''You Can't Go Home Again
''You Can't Go Home Again'' is a novel by Thomas Wolfe published posthumously in 1940, extracted by his editor, Edward Aswell, from the contents of his vast unpublished manuscript ''The October Fair''. It is a sequel to ''The Web and the Rock'', ...
'', and ''The Good Child's River
''The Good Child's River'' is a novel by Thomas Wolfe. A formerly lost novel, it was first published in 1991, 53 years after Wolfe's death.
The book was found, edited, and produced by Suzanne Stutman, a Wolfe scholar who also edited the 2003 book ...
''. Bernstein, in turn, centered her autobiographical novel ''The Journey Down'' around her affair with Wolfe.[ Bernstein's and Wolfe's affair ended after a few years, but their friendship continued. One of Wolfe's last phone calls, when he was dying of a brain tumor at age 37, was to tell Bernstein he loved her.][ At the time of Wolfe's death in 1938, Bernstein possessed some of Wolfe's unpublished manuscripts.]
In the 2016 biographical drama film ''Genius
Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...
'', Bernstein was portrayed by Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
, while Wolfe was portrayed by Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary Césa ...
.
References
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
*
Aline Bernstein designs, 1922–1952
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
Aline Bernstein letters to Samuel Bradley, 1938–1946
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernstein, Aline
1880 births
1955 deaths
Jewish American artists
Muses
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Tony Award winners
American costume designers
Women costume designers
Writers from Manhattan
American women artists
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American women