House of a Thousand Windows
Artist
Alvin Langdon Coburn
(English, born America, 1882 - 1966)
Date1912
MediumPlatinum print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 16 3/16 × 12 7/16 inches (41.12 × 31.59 cm)
Mount (1): 17 7/16 × 13 1/8 inches (44.29 × 33.34 cm)
Mount (2): 22 × 17 1/2 inches (55.88 × 44.45 cm)
Mount (3): 24 13/16 × 19 1/8 inches (63.02 × 48.58 cm)
Mount (1): 17 7/16 × 13 1/8 inches (44.29 × 33.34 cm)
Mount (2): 22 × 17 1/2 inches (55.88 × 44.45 cm)
Mount (3): 24 13/16 × 19 1/8 inches (63.02 × 48.58 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.297
SignedSigned and dated on mount 2 recto, lower right, in pencil: "Alvin Langdon Coburn / 1912".
InscribedTitled and dated on mount 3 verso, lower left, in pencil: " 'The House of a Thousand Windows' 1912".
MarkingsInscribed on mount 3 verso, lower left, in pencil: "42-47" , "4g" / "52".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a building towering high above all the others; the facade is filled with rows of evenly spaced windows.Gallery LabelOne of photography's greatest prodigies, Coburn first received critical praise at the age of 18. In 1912, he produced the most remarkable artistic photographs of the era by capturing the dizzying view from the tops of New York's tallest buildings. This bold image plays the flatness of simple geometric forms-the rectangular and triangular shapes of the foreground building and tenement block-against the spatial recession of the urban grid. The result is an eerie sense of vitality: the real subject of this image is the energy of the modern age. This is the only known exhibition print of this influential work.
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