Charlie Chaplin

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

Date1925

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 1/2 × 7 9/16 inches (24.13 × 19.21 cm)
Sheet: 9 15/16 × 7 15/16 inches (25.24 × 20.16 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.2182

Signednone

InscribedTitled and dated on sheet verso, upper right, in pencil: "Chaplin / 1925"; Dated on sheet verso, lower left, in pencil: /"V.F. Dec. 1925".

MarkingsOn sheet verso, center, in pencil: "30"; On sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "ES383.2"; On sheet verso, lower right, in pencil: "1-34-00".

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionProfile portrait of a man (Charlie Chaplin) with his head turned slightly to look toward the viewer. He is wearing a dark pinstriped suit and tie, and his hair is slightly graying near the temples.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

In the Public Eye: Photography and Fame. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 8 - June 15, 2008, no cat.

Edward Steichen – In High Fashion: The Condé Nast Years 1923-1937. Jeu de Paume, Paris, October 9 - December 30, 2007, Kunsthaus Zürich, January 11 - March 30, 2008, Chiostri di San Domenico, Reggia Emilia, Italy, April 15 - June 8, 2008, Museo del Traje, Madrid, June 24 - September 22, 2008, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, October 10, 2008- January 1, 2009, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, January 16 - May 3, 2009, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, May 30 - November 8, 2009, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, September 26, 2009 - January 3, 2010, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 28 - April 11, 2010, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 15 - July 25, 2010, hors cat (Kansas City only).

Gallery Label

After achieving high praise for his soft-focus pictorial photography, at the turn of the century, Edward Steichen turned to a "straight" approach in the 1910s. In 1923, he began a celebrated career as a portrait and advertising photographer for the Condé Nast publications, Vogue and Vanity Fair. Steichen's work of these years reflected his modernist aesthetic: boldly composed, sharply focused, and expressively lit. Steichen was capable of both underscoring and subverting public expectations. For example, while Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was universally known as a gifted film comedian, this portrait reveals a brooding and serious actor.

Provenance

Inherited from the artist by Joanna Taub Steichen, Montauk, NY (1933-2010), 1973;
Purcahsed from Joanna Steinchen by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York;
Purchased from Howard Greenberg Gallery by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 2000;

Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 2000; Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

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