Subway Portrait
1938
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 14.6 x 16.9 cm (5 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kent and Marcia Minichiello
Accession Number
1988.56.39
Art Historical Context
Walker Evans's *Subway Portrait* (1938) captures an intimate, candid moment of a subway rider in New York City, rendered in a gelatin silver print—a medium prized for its rich tonal range and sharp detail that became a hallmark of 20th-century documentary photography. Measuring just 14.6 x 16.9 cm, this trimmed print exemplifies Evans's mastery of the small-format image, allowing for close-up intensity that draws viewers into the subject's unposed gaze. Created during the Great Depression, the photograph belongs to Evans's groundbreaking subway series (1938–1941), where he innovated with a co...
About the Artist
Walker Evans · 1903–1975
Walker Evans (1903–1975) was born on November 3, 1903, in St. Louis, Missouri, to an affluent family; his father, Walker Evans Sr., worked as an advertising director. Raised across Toledo, Chicago, and New York City, he attended elite preparatory schools including Phillips Academy in Andover before briefly studying French literature at Williams College, from which he dropped out after one year. A ...