Item of the Week: A Clark Tribute to Gloria Stuart

Published: October 1, 2010

From Albany Bautista, Library Assistant:

Gloria Stuart, actress, painter, printer and friend of the Clark Library, passed away September 27 at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 100.  Ms. Stuart is best known for her role in Titanic, but she had an substantial early screen career making a total of 46 films from 1932 to 1946.  In 1946, she abandoned her movie career until her comeback in “Titanic” over 30 years later. That film earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

The best motion picture of 1997 : Titanic, by its author, director & producer James Cameron

After leaving Hollywood, Ms. Stuart learned to paint and held her first one woman show in 1961 at the Hammer Galleries in New York.  In 1983 she re-connected with Ward Ritchie, the best friend of her first husband Gordon Newell and they began an autumn romance which lasted until Ritchie’s death in 1996.  Ritchie taught her to print and she became a respected designer of hand printed artist’s books and broadsides under her own imprint, Imprenta Glorias. Institutions like the Getty and the Victoria & Albert own her work — and so does the Clark.  Above, a small book Stuart produced to commemorate James Cameron’s acceptance speech at the 1997 Academy Awards.

Below, a gallery of images from several other works by Stuart, including Boating with Bogart (1993), Portrait by Don Bachardy, Christopher Isherwood’s Commonplace Book, March fifteenth, nineteen eighty-three, and A Slight Diversion.

No Comments

Patrick on

What a wonderful surprise! I had no idea the Clark had so many of her printed books. They’re truly lovely and touching. I am especially interested in the Isherwood books. Did she know Christopher Isherwood or Don Bachardy?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

three × 3 =