Songs of the Sky G4
1923
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 11.2 x 9 cm (4 7/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1949.3.1112
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz's *Songs of the Sky G* (1923) captures the ethereal beauty of the heavens in a modest gelatin silver print, measuring just 11.2 x 9 cm. As a pioneering photographer and advocate for the medium as fine art, Stieglitz produced this intimate image during the final phase of his career, when he was deeply exploring abstraction through nature. The title hints at a poetic series inspired by clouds drifting across the sky, reflecting his belief that photographs could evoke pure emotion without literal representation. Gelatin silver prints, like this one, were a hallmark of early 20th...
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 ...