Sleeping Boy
1912
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 4.4 x 5.9 cm (1 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation
Accession Number
2000.170.1
Art Historical Context
In the intimate confines of this tiny gelatin silver print, *Sleeping Boy* (1912) captures a moment of serene vulnerability by Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész. Measuring just 4.4 x 5.9 cm, the image invites viewers to lean in close, much like peering into a private world. Created when Kertész was only 18 and just beginning his photographic journey with a simple glass-plate camera, it exemplifies his early instinct for finding beauty in the everyday. Kertész, a pioneer of modernist photography, favored candid, unposed scenes over staged portraits, a style that would define his influe...
About the Artist
André Kertész
André Kertész, born Andor Kertész on July 2, 1894, in Budapest, Hungary, to a middle-class Jewish family, initially pursued a conventional path as a clerk at the Budapest Stock Exchange after graduating from the Academy of Commerce in 1912. Self-taught in photography after purchasing his first camera that year, he captured his early poetic visions of Hungarian landscapes and peasant life, includin...