PROF. ADOLF v. SEITZ

Eugene, Frank

Published by Alfred Stieglitz, New York, 1910

About this Item

Hand-pulled photogravure, 6 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches [16.7 x 12.1 cm] printed on tissue and tipped on to the original laid paper leaf, 11 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches [29.85x 20.96 cm]. Archivally matted on rag board with window overmat. Signed in the plate by the photographer. Fine. The image is a fine full-tone photogravure from CAMERA WORK 31, 1910. Frank Eugene Smith (1865-1936, NYC) studied at the City College of New York and in Munich, at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He was initially a painter and turned to photography, primarily portraiture, in the Pictorialist style. He held his first exhibit at The Camera Club of New York in 1899, was elected to The Linked Ring in 1900, and in 1902, he was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession. He moved permanently to Germany in 1906, where he worked with several prominent painters, many of which he subsequently memorialized in photographic portraits. In 1913, he was appointed Royal Professor of the Graphic Arts of Leipzig, a professorship, created especially for Eugene, which was the first chair for pictorial photography at any art academy. Frank Eugene is considered a master of the manipulated image. Weston Naef described his style: "The very boldness with which Eugene manipulated the negative by scratching and painting forced even those with strong sympathy for the purist line of thinking like White, Day and Stieglitz to admire Eugene's particular touch.he created a new syntax for the photographic vocabulary, for no one before him had hand-worked negatives with such painterly intentions and skill unsurpassed by his successors." The Collection of Alfred Stieglitz: Fifty Pioneers of Modern Photography. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978. p. 345-346. Seller Inventory # 54572

Bibliographic Details

Title: PROF. ADOLF v. SEITZ

Publisher: Alfred Stieglitz, New York

Publication Date: 1910