Roman Sculptor, Peikov
1949
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 39.5 × 32.2 cm (15 9/16 × 12 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection)
Accession Number
2015.19.4614
Art Historical Context
Gordon Parks' *Roman Sculptor, Pe* (1949) captures a moment of quiet intensity in post-World War II Rome, portraying the sculptor Peikov at work amid the city's enduring artistic legacy. As one of America's pioneering Black photographers, Parks—best known for his incisive photojournalism with *Life* magazine—traveled internationally to document human stories with empathy and precision. This gelatin silver print, measuring 39.5 × 32.2 cm, showcases his ability to elevate everyday artisans into symbols of resilience and creativity. The medium of gelatin silver print, a hallmark of mid-20th-cent...
About the Artist
Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks (1912–2006), born the youngest of fifteen children to a Kansas tenant farmer and his wife in segregated Fort Scott, overcame a childhood marked by poverty, racism, and tragedy—including his mother's death at age fourteen—to become one of America's most influential chroniclers of Black life. Entirely self-taught after purchasing his first camera in 1937, inspired by Farm Security Admin...