Daisye
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print with applied color
Dimensions
image/sheet: 15.1 × 10.1 cm (5 15/16 × 4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Avalon Fund
Accession Number
2019.127.4
Art Historical Context
**Daisye**, a captivating 1931 gelatin silver print with applied color by James Van Zee, measures 15.1 × 10.1 cm and is housed in the National of Art's Department of Photographs, courtesy of the Avalon Fund. Der Zee, a pioneering African American photographer, captured the elegance of Black life in Harlem during a transformative era bridging the Harlem Renaissance and the Great DepressionThis intimate portrait exemplifies Van Der Zee's mastery of portraiture, where he elevated everyday subjects into symbols of dignity and aspiration. His use of gelatin silver print—a crisp, high-contrast black...
About the Artist
James Van Der Zee
James Augustus Van Der Zee (1886–1983) was born on June 29 in Lenox, Massachusetts, into a family where he quickly displayed talents in music, mastering the violin and piano while aspiring to a professional career as a violinist. Self-taught in photography from age fourteen, he acquired his first camera around 1900 and documented his family and small-town New England community, providing one of th...