Blued Tree with Green Foliage, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
1978, printed 1979
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
dye imbibition print
Dimensions
image: 18.42 × 18.1 cm (7 1/4 × 7 1/8 in.) sheet: 22.86 × 22 cm (9 × 8 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Richard W. and Susan R. Gessner)
Accession Number
2015.19.4207
Art Historical Context
Harry Callahan's *Blued Tree with Greenoliage, Cape Cod Massachusetts* (1978, printed 9) captures the artist's lifelong fascination with nature's abstract forms. Shot on Cape Cod, a place Callahan often visited for inspiration, this dye imbibition print transforms a simple tree into a vibrant study of color and shape. The deep blue trunk contrasts strikingly with vivid green foliage, evoking modernist impulse to distill the everyday into poetic essence. Callahan, a pioneering American photographer (1912–1999), elevated color photography to fine art during an era when black-and-white dominated ...
About the Artist
Harry Callahan
Harry Morey Callahan (1912–1999) was a pioneering American photographer whose self-taught ingenuity transformed everyday scenes into profound visual poetry. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he briefly studied engineering at Michigan State University before working at Chrysler, where he joined the company camera club. In 1938, Callahan took up photography as a hobby, but a 1941 lecture by Ansel Adams ins...