BAKER JOSEPHINE: (1906-1975)

BAKER JOSEPHINE: (1906-1975) American-born French entertainer. An excellent vintage signed and inscribed sepia 8 x 10 photograph of Baker standing in an elegant full-length pose. Photograph by Murray Korman of New York. Signed by Baker in bold, dark fountain pen ink, with a warm inscription in French, ´Pour mon cher Directeur Monsieur "Romette", avec toute ma sympathie bien bien sincerement, Votre Josephine Baker´, and dated 1941 in her hand. A couple of very light, minor surface marks and with a couple of extremely small pinholes to the white borders, about VG

Célestin Romette (1891–1964) French lyric artist and theatre director who managed regional opera houses in France starting in the late 1930s, directing venues in cities like Amiens, Rouen, and Marseille during the early 1940s.

In 1941 Baker and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa. The stated reason was Baker's health (since she was recovering from a case of pneumonia), but the real reason was to continue helping the French Resistance as a spy. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain. She pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear.