Matches and Matchboxes

Artist Edward Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879 - 1973)

Date1926

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 13 5/8 × 11 1/8 inches (34.61 × 28.26 cm)
Sheet: 14 1/16 × 11 5/16 inches (35.72 × 28.73 cm)
Mount: 14 1/16 × 11 5/16 inches (35.72 × 28.73 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.2188

Signednone

InscribedOn sheet recto, top, in negative: "Dec.1926. Top. #35"; On mount verso, top, in black pen: "[?] design matches & matchboxes N.Y. 1926".

MarkingsOn mount verso, center, in pencil: "70"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionMultiple open matchboxes against a plain white background with wooden matchsticks fanned around the boxes to create an abstract pattern. The frame is lit, casting shadows across the plane.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

20th-Century Photographs from the Hallmark Photographic Collection. Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA, January 10 –February 22, 1981, no cat.

Photographic Abstraction. Utah State University, Logan, UT, Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, Fine Art Center/Cheekwood, Nashville, TN, Montgomery Museum of Art, AL, January – September 1987, no cat.

The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900-2000 (Part I: 1900-1950). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, April 15 - September 30, 1999.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, October 5, 2000- February 4, 2001.

American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918-1939, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; July 9 2022-January 8 2023, no cat.

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1969;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1963), 109 (repro)

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