Edward Steichen photographed Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) for the first time in 1926. When Steichen had the opportunity to photograph Chaplin again in 1931, he remembered “how, at his first sitting, we had difficulty breaking through his avowed self-consciousness. He had said ‘I have to be doing something’”. Therefore Steichen built Chaplin a set to work in. Steichen took pictures while Chaplin improvised with his trademark cane and hat. The result was a montage of four photographs – this one being the first Steichen took in that sitting – that was published as a centre spread in Vanity Fair in May 1931.