Refugees, Barcelona, Spanish Civil War
c. 1936–1937
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 24.13 × 17.15 cm (9 1/2 × 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Ben Shneiderman)
Accession Number
2015.19.4961
Art Historical Context
In the midst of the Spanish Civil War1936–1939), photographer David Seymour, known as Chim, captured raw human toll of conflict in *Refugees, Barcelona, Spanish War* (c. 1936–1937). A pioneering photojournalist and co-founder of Magnum Photos Chim embedded himself with Republican forces, documenting the exodus of civilians fleeing Francisco Franco's Nationalist advance on Barcelona, a Republican stronghold. This gelatin silver print, measuring 9½ × 6¾ inches, freezes a moment of desperation amid the chaos of war, highlighting the plight of ordinary people uprooted by ideological strife. The g...
About the Artist
David Seymour (Chim)
David Seymour, born Dawid Szymin on November 20, 1911, in Warsaw, Poland, became one of the defining photojournalists of the twentieth century. Raised in a family of Yiddish and Hebrew publishers, he studied graphic arts in Leipzig before pursuing further studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he began his career as a freelance photographer in 1933. His work first appeared in the French magazine ...