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ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Blavatsky portraits and photographs
These are photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other depictions of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, also known as HPB.
This collection of photos was inspired by a display of photos on the Theosophy Canada website in 2005, "A Pictorial Look at H. P. Blavatsky," which has more recently evolved into a slide show. Many thanks go to the Edmonton Theosophical Society for the inspiration and the research that went into its collection.
Images used here are scanned from the photo collection of the Theosophical Society in America, the [www.Blavatskyarchives.com Blavatsky Archives], and other sources, which are identified where possible, with copyright data if applicable. Additions and corrections are welcome.
Photograph or Art Work | Year Created | Artist | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Late 1840s | Unknown | Painting of young H. P. Blavatsky and her mother, H. Hahn. It is at the H. P. B. museum in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. The painter is unknown, but it may have been HPB herself. | |
Unknown | H. P. Blavatsky in New York days, from blavatskyarchives.com | ||
1877 | Unknown | ||
1884 | Hermann Schmiechen | Fragment of painting by Hermann Schmiechen. | |
Unknown | |||
Unknown | Photo of HPB reading book. Scanned by Theosophical Society in Archives. | ||
Unknown | |||
1880s | Unknown | H. P. Blavatsky sitting in a bath-chair, with G. R. S. Mead (right) and James Morgan Pryse. | |
1880s | Unknown | H. P. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott in their final meeting in India. | |
1888 | William Quan Judge | Photo taken with Kodak camera as HPB was working on Lucifer. Photo courtesy of Will Thackara at International Theosophical Society (Pasadena); restoration of photo by Pavel Malakhov. QUOTE FROM ECHOES OF THE ORIENT VOL 1 pages 259, 262-263 | |
January 8, 1889 | Enrico Resta | "The Sphinx" pose - the most famous image of HPB. This was taken in Resta's studio at 4 Coburg Place, Bayswater, London on January 8, 1889. Six glass plates were taken altogether; in some HPB is looking to the side or is holding a cigarette. The originals are now located in the Archives of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society in England. Image from the Theosophical Society in America Archives. | |
1891 | Unknown | Death mask of HPB as printed in May 1991 issue of "The Theosophist". | |
ca1889-1909 | Gutzon Borglum | Painted for his Theosophist father by the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, copied from the Resta photograph. This painting hangs in the Meditation Room in the headquarters building of the Theosophical Society in America. It was painted between 1889 and 1909, when the father died. | |
Unknown | Unknown | ||
1931 | Z. Vanessa Helder | Sketch published in World Theosophy vol. 1 no. 8, August 1931, p. 599. | |
2000s | Unknown | ||
2000s | Alexey Leonov | ||
2000s | Alexey Leonov | Young H. P. Blavatsky |
- ↑ John Algeo turned "A Pictorial Look at H.P. Blavatsky" into a PDF file that he printed out. A copy is in the John Algeo Papers, Records Series 08.12, Theosophical Society in America Archives, and that was the impetus for this project. The URL was http://www.theosophycanada.com/bios/HPB_Bio.htm. It was accessed on June 18, 2005. A backup is available on the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive, for the date November 5, 2005.