Fifth Avenue--Twilight
Artist
Karl Struss
(American, 1886 - 1981)
Date1910
MediumGum bichromate over platinum print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 11 15/16 × 9 5/16 inches (30.32 × 23.65 cm)
Mount (1, tissue): 16 13/16 × 12 5/16 inches (42.7 × 31.27 cm)
Mount (2): 17 3/16 × 14 1/8 inches (43.66 × 35.88 cm)
Mount (1, tissue): 16 13/16 × 12 5/16 inches (42.7 × 31.27 cm)
Mount (2): 17 3/16 × 14 1/8 inches (43.66 × 35.88 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.303
SignedSigned on image recto, lower right, in pencil: "Karl Struss.";
Signed on tissue mount 1 recto, lower right, in pencil: "Karl Struss.";
Signed on mount 2 recto, lower right, in pencil: "Karl Struss.";
Artist stamp on mount verso, center, in black ink: "KARL STRUSS / ARTIST PHOTOGRAPHER / HOLLYWOOD :: CALIFORNIA".
InscribedDated on tissue mount, lower left, in pencil: "1910.";
Titled on mount verso, center, in pencil and black pen: "FIFTH - AVE - TWILIGHT";
On mount verso, center, in black and blue pen: "GUM-PLANTINUM-PRINT"
MarkingsOn mount verso, center, in blue pen: "#16-";
On mount verso, center, in blue pencil: "109"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a car filled street at twilight; street lamps and buildings that line the road recede into the background.Exhibition HistoryRotation 2. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 24, 2007 – March 19, 2008, no cat.
Rotation 14. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 12 – June 9, 2013, no cat.
World War I and the Rise of Modernism. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 9 – October 18, 2015, no cat.
Rotation 23. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 18 – May 28, 2017, no cat.
Karl Struss used the camera as a means of poetic expression—he was interested in mood and mystery rather than “simple” documentary facts. This work, one of his largest and most important photographs, exists in three known original examples—each markedly different in tonality and image color. Stylistically, this photograph looks both backward and forward in time. The soft focus effect is characteristic of artistic approaches prior to 1910. However, its modern subject— traffic on Fifth Avenue—points to the concerns of a later generation of photographers.
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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