Portrait of a Shade
1953
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 50.5 x 40.4 cm (19 7/8 x 15 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ilse Bing Wolff
Accession Number
2001.147.76
Art Historical Context
Ilse Bing’s “Portrait of a Shade,” created in 1953, is a striking gelatin silver print that exemplifies mid-century photographic artistry. Measuring roughly 50 by 40 centimeters, the showcases the rich tonal range and fine detail possible with this traditional printing process, which was the dominant black-and-white medium of its era. Bing, working at a time when photography was gaining recognition as fine art, used the medium’s capacity for subtle gradations to explore themes of light, shadow, and identity. The evocative title hints at a playful yet introspective engagement with silhouette a...
About the Artist
Ilse Bing
Ilse Bing, born on March 23, 1899, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish merchant family, grew up immersed in music and art. The daughter of Louis Bing and Johanna Elli Bing (née Katz), she pursued studies in mathematics and physics at the University of Frankfurt starting in 1920, later shifting to art history and architecture. A semester at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Institut in...