Tigress, Central Park, New York
Artist
John Johnston
(American, active 1880s - 1890s)
Dateca. 1889
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage: 8 1/8 x 6 3/8 inches (20.64 x 16.19 cm)
Framed: 16 3/4 x 13 3/8 inches (42.55 x 33.97 cm)
Framed: 16 3/4 x 13 3/8 inches (42.55 x 33.97 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.4042
InscribedNotations
"tigress, Cent. Park, N.Y."
In Negative
On View
Not on viewCollections
Terms
Little known today, John Johnston worked as a commercial photographer in New York City. This remarkable image, made in about 1889, boldly demonstrates the new visual potential of the hand-held camera and the dynamism of the snapshot aesthetic. On one level this is an image about geometry and its permutations: the rigid grid of the foreground iron bar contrasts with the softer lines of shadows on the floor and back wall and the irregular pattern of the animal's stripes. On another level, it is an image explicitly about the energy of the split-second gesture: the tiger's and the attentive photographer's.
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Charles D. Fredricks
ca. 1865
2005.27.3504.A,B
