Portrait
1919-1920
Medium
color woodcut on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 10.7 × 4.9 cm (4 3/16 × 1 15/16 in.) sheet: 19.4 × 15.1 cm (7 5/8 × 5 15/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams
Accession Number
2008.115.4982
Art Historical Context
Max Weber's *Portrait* (1919–1920) is a delicate color woodcut on laid paper, capturing the modernist spirit of early 20th-century New York. Measuring just 10.7 × 4.9 cm for the image, this intimate print exemplifies Weber's experimental phase as a Russian-born Jewish immigrant and key figure in American avant-garde circles. Associated with Alfred Stieglitz's at Gallery 291, Weber drew from Cubism, Expressionism, and Jewish folk art, distilling human form into bold, abstracted lines and vibrant hues. The color woodcut technique—revived by modernists after centuries of dormancy—highlights Webe...
About the Artist
Max Weber
Max Weber (1881–1961), born in Białystok in the Russian Empire (now Poland) to Orthodox Jewish parents, immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, at age ten with his family, joining his tailor father.) There, he pursued art studies at the Pratt Institute under Arthur Wesley Dow, an innovative teacher who emphasized expression and form over traditional narrative, drawing from Japanese art and Paul Gauguin....