Lee Nevin
1965
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 23.6 x 17.8 cm (9 5/16 x 7 in.) mount: 36.2 x 29.5 cm (14 1/4 x 11 5/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Frederick Sommer
Accession Number
1995.5.7
Art Historical Context
Frederick Sommer's *Lee Nevin* (1965) is a striking gelatin silver print from the National Gallery of Art collection, gifted directly by the artist. Measuring 23.6 x 17.8 cm (image/sheet) on a generous 36.2 x 29.5 cm mount, this exemplifies the tactile precision of mid-20th-century darkroom techniques. Gelatin silver prints, a staple of black-and-white photography from the 1880s through the 1980s, are prized for their luminous tonal range and archival stability, allowing subtle gradations of light and shadow to convey depth and emotion. Sommer (1905–1999), a visionary American photographer ba...
About the Artist
Frederick Sommer
Frederick Sommer (1905–1999) was one of the most singular and philosophically searching visual artists of twentieth-century America, a figure who defied easy categorization as he moved between photography, drawing, collage, and theoretical writing across a career spanning more than six decades. Born in Angri, Italy, and raised in Brazil, Sommer earned a master's degree in landscape architecture fr...