Gloria Vanderbilt

Better known for the eponymous line of designer jeans she marketed on behalf of Mohan Murjani in the 1970s, New York socialite Gloria Vanderbilt also painted canvases of women in ethereal settings from her youth until her 90s. The niece and ward of sculptor and Whitney Museum of American Art founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Gloria Vanderbilt began making art as a child in boarding school, and later studied at the Art Students League of New York. Her best-known paintings include a dreamlike portrait of writer Truman Capote titled Truman (1956), and an interior of her fabled aunt’s Greenwich Village living room, 60 Washington Mews (2012). Vanderbilt also created collages and designed textiles based on her paintings. Later in life, she exhibited at New York and Vermont galleries, and became the companion of the groundbreaking African American photographer Gordon Parks.