Cutting the Gladdon
Artist
Peter Henry Emerson
(English, born Cuba, 1856 - 1936)
Date1886
MediumPlatinum print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 7 7/16 × 9 7/16 inches (18.89 × 23.97 cm)
Mount: 11 1/4 × 16 1/4 inches (28.58 × 41.28 cm)
Mount: 11 1/4 × 16 1/4 inches (28.58 × 41.28 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2017.61.10
Signednone
Inscribednone
MarkingsOn sheet verso, lower left corner, in pencil: “23789”.
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionSoftly focused image of man standing in wooden boat holding scythe over shallow body of water with tall strands of straw; he has a beard and wears a brimmed hat and jacket. There is a house in the background near the upper right corner.Exhibition HistoryRotation 26. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 29, 2019- August 25, 2019, no cat.
Peter Henry Emerson championed “naturalistic photography,” a theory that camera focus should mimic the workings of human sight by placing the primary subject in sharper focus and leaving outside areas less defined. Here, he emphasizes the sickle hook and a few reed stalks by rendering them in sharper focus than the laborer. Emerson created many influential photography books that were illustrated with platinum prints such as this one, which was originally included in a volume of Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1887).
Serge Kakou, Paris, France;
Purchased from Serge Kakou by the Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
Purchased from Serge Kakou by the Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
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