Nasturtiums
1951
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 34.6 × 26.9 cm (13 5/8 × 10 9/16 in.) mount: 46.5 × 35.5 cm (18 5/16 × 14 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Nancy Jane and Alan Shestack
Accession Number
2020.155.4
Art Historical Context
Ansel Adams, celebrated for his majestic landscapes of the American West, created this intimate study of nasturtiums in 1951. The gelatin silver print reveals the photographer’s mastery of light and texture, transforming a simple cluster of flowers into a striking composition of delicate petals and subtle tonal gradations. Measuring just over 13 by 10 inches on its original mount, the work demonstrates Adams’s ability to find grandeur in small-scale natural subjects. As a leading figure in the straight photography movement and a founding member of Group f/64, Adams championed sharp focus and ...
About the Artist
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams, born on February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California, grew up as the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman and astronomy enthusiast who tutored him at home, and Olive Bray, with whom he had a distant relationship. A hyperactive child prone to illness, Adams struggled in formal schooling and was educated by private tutors and his father until graduating from eighth gr...