This is a marvellous portrait of the great dancer by the photographer Baron (Stirling Henry Nahum) (British, 1906-1956), signed in ink to the mount.  It has been immaculately framed by QED framers to bring it to its best and is, under any circumstances a remarkably vivid photograph.
 
Of Jewish Italian ancestry, Baron Sterling Henry Nahum was born in Manchester. He took up documentary film-making in 1933, before establishing a photographic studio three years later in London. Lord Snowdon was one of his photographer’s assistants. Baron was soon portraying the stars of ballet, film and politics, and members of the Royal Family.  He became widely known as a broadcaster and writer on photography. In 1954, whilst in America promoting his book Ballet Encore, Baron was commissioned to photograph Hollywood's female celebrities.
 
Uday Shankar, dancer and choreographer, was elder brother to the musician Ravi Shankar and is considered the father of modern dance in India. Born in  Mumbai1900, he studied music, photography and art and became a student at the Royal College of Art in London , where he continued to dance, and met the great Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, who greatly influenced his future work. He travelled and performed extensively in Europe and USA, eventually settling in Kolkata, where he opened the Uday Shankar Centre for Dance in 1965.  He died in 1977.