Artist: Edward Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973)
Medium: Photogravure on tissue (from Camera Work, April/July 1911, Vols. 34/35)
Dimensions:
9.5 in. h. x 6.5 in. w., image
17 in. h. x 14 in. w., as framed
Description:
Before he was recognized as a key figure of twentieth-century photography, Steichen greatly admired the “father of modern sculpture,” Auguste Rodin. When he lived in Paris from 1900 to 1902, exhibiting works as a painter and photographer, he was able to meet Rodin through a mutual friend. Rodin invited Steichen to his studio over the course of a year, and Steichen completed a series of portraits of the sculptor and his sculptures. Later in 1908, Rodin asked Steichen to take photographs of his Balzac plaster cast, which was widely criticized and never cast during Rodin’s lifetime. Steichen’s photographs of Balzac were published in the 1911 Camera Work, an issue of the journal that Rodin was so proud of, that he gave Steichen a bronze cast of his The Walking Man. In this portrait of Auguste Rodin, Steichen captures the artistic genius deep in thought, which echoes the sculptor’s famed work, The Thinker.
Type of Work: Prints
