Charles Demuth
1923
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 23.2 x 18.7 cm (9 1/8 x 7 3/8 in.) mount: 51.5 x 38.5 cm (20 1/4 x 15 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1949.3.542
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz’s 1923 gelatin silver print captures fellow artist Charles Demuth in a quietly powerful portrait. As one of the leading figures in early American modernism, Stieglitz used photography to elevate the medium to the status of fine art. His image of Demuth, a Precisionist painter known for his crisp architectural and industrial subjects, reflects the close ties between photographers and painters in New York’s avant-garde circles during the 1920s. The gelatin silver print process allowed Stieglitz to achieve rich tonal contrasts and sharp detail, qualities that became hallmarks of...
About the Artist
Alfred Stieglitz · 1864–1946
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a pioneering American photographer, art dealer, publisher, and advocate for the Modernist movement who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Stieglitz spent his formative years studying mechanical engineering in Berlin, where he discovered photography in ...