Balzac by moonlight
Artist
Edward Steichen
(American, born Luxembourg, 1879 - 1973)
Date1908
MediumGum bichromate print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 11 1/16 × 11 1/8 inches (28.1 × 28.26 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.4398
Signednone
InscribedOn sheet verso, lower left, in pencil: "Photograph by Steichen / Rodin's - Blazac - Meudon, 1908, By moonlight in September"
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionA white statue (by Rodin of Balzac) of a figure in right half of frame against a black background.Exhibition HistoryAmerican Photography: Recent Additions to the Hallmark Photographic Collection. The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 27 – May 14, 2000, no cat.
Rotation 24. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – November 12, 2017, no cat.
As a young artist living in Paris, Edward Steichen came to know and idolize the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Steichen made this moody and mysterious photograph using a long nighttime exposure in the garden of Rodin’s studio. The subject is Rodin’s controversial sculpture Monument to Balzac, which is now regarded as a landmark modernist work.
Acquired from the artist by Clara Steichen (1875–1952), Paris, France;
George Rinhart, Palm Springs, CA;
Purchased from George Rinhart by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1997;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
George Rinhart, Palm Springs, CA;
Purchased from George Rinhart by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1997;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Copyright© The Estate of Edward Steichen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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