Eastern Portico of the Parthenon, View Looking Northward and Showing Mount Parnes in the Extreme Distance

Series TitleThe Acropolis of Athens

Artist William James Stillman (American, 1828 - 1901)

Dateca. 1869

MediumCarbon print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 9 1/2 × 7 1/2 inches (24.13 × 19.05 cm)
Mount: 21 × 14 1/2 inches (53.34 × 36.83 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.197

Signednone

Inscribednone

MarkingsOn image recto, lower left corner: "15"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage, Plate 15, of a stone structure with columns at regular intervals; there is a column at the far end which divides a forested mountain landscape and cloud filled sky.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

William James Stillman was a journalist, art critic, aspiring painter and founder of the Crayon, one of the most influential art journals of the period. He counted among his friends and influences the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, the scientist Louis Agassiz and the British art critic John Ruskin. Stillman made extensive photographic surveys in 1869 and 1882 in Greece, at the Acropolis. This image, composed to emphasize the structural grandeur of the Parthenon, is a testament to both the beauty of the classical architecture and the capacity of photography to render its timeless qualities through light, shadow and lush tonalities.

Published References

Andrew Szegdy-Maszak, "An American on the Acropolis: William James Stillman," History of Photography 29:1 (Spring 2005): 1-34; Anne Ehrenkranz, Poetic Localities: Photographs of Adirondacks, Cambridge, Crete, Italy, Athens (New York: Aperture, 1988); Elizabeth Lindquist-Cock, "Stillman, Ruskin, and Rossetti: The Struggle Between Nature and Art," History of Photography 3:1 (January 1979): 1-14; W. J. Stillman, "Retrospect," American Annual of Photography [New York: Scovill Publishing Company] 5 (1891): 156-61.

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