Rainbow
1920
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/paper/first mount: 11.6 × 9.1 cm (4 5/8 × 3 5/8 in.); Second mount: 34.2 × 27.7 cm (13 1/2 × 10 15/16 in.)
Classification
gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
66405
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz’s “Rainbow,” made in 1920, captures a fleeting moment of natural wonder through the lens of one of photography’s most influential advocates. A central figure in establishing photography as fine art, Stieglitz championed both the Pictorialist emphasis on beauty and the emerging modernist approach of “straight” photography. By this date he had turned his attention to the sky and landscape around his Lake George home, using simple subjects to explore light, atmosphere, and emotion. The gelatin silver print medium was ideally suited to Stieglitz’s goals. Its fine grain and rich t...
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 ...