Jean Toomer
1925
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 11.5 × 9.1 cm (4 1/2 × 3 9/16 in.) mount: 34.2 × 27.55 cm (13 7/16 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1949.3.646
Art Historical Context
In 1925, pioneering photographer Alfred Stiegl captured this intimate portrait of Jean Toomer the acclaimed author of *Cane* (1923), a seminal work of the Harlem Renaissance. Stglitz, a champion of photography as fine art through his Gallery 291 in New York, often photographed cultural luminaries to reveal their inner essence. This gelatin silver print, from his personal collection now at the National Gallery of, exemplifies his shift toward "straight photography"—crisp, unmanipulated images that prioritized emotional truth over pictorialist softness. The modest image size (11.5 × 9.1 cm) on ...
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 ...