Exhibitions: A Century of Portrait Photography

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A Century of Portrait Photography

Dates: September 12, 1951 through October 29, 1951
Organizing Department: Prints, Drawings and Photographs
Collections: Photography

Press Releases

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September 13, 1951: An exhibition entitled “A Century of Portrait Photography” opened yesterday (Sept. 12) at The Brooklyn Museum with a private view for invited guests. The exhibit will remain on view in the entrance Gallery of the Museum through October 14.

The exhibition traces the history of portrait photography from about 1830 through about 1930, starting with the early daguerreotype and ending with portraits achieved by photographic processes as we know them today.

About 65 works by the following prominent photographers mostly from England, France, Germany and the United States are included: Franz Antoine, Julia Cameron, Sidney Carter, G. C. Cox, Edgar Degas, Thomas Eakins, Arnold Genthe, Lewis H. Home, David O. Hill, Gertrude Kasebier, Pine MacDonald, Man Ray, Southworth & Hawes, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston and others.
Notable in the early section in the exhibit is the well-known daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams by Southworth & Hawes. The practised and searching eye of the American painter Thomas Eakins has produced a superb portrait of his mother-in-law. A realistic portrait of Theodore Roosevelt will appeal to many, and certainly a shot of “Two Bearded Men” by Paul Strand will impress others.

From the beginnings of photography, the visitor can sense the excitement created by this new art medium and also see how successfully it was used in the early stages. Bold experimentation methods of photographing and printing often produced dramatic and exotic results. Always the manners and conventions of the times are accurately, and sometimes amusingly recorded f or us, and many portraits give a quick Insight into the personality of such famous names as Rudyard Kipling, Walt Whitman, Bernard Shaw, etc. Photographs have been lent to the exhibition chiefly from the Stieglitz Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Others were lent by the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the City of New York and Karl Tausig.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1951, 081. View Original

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Recent Comments

"Hi Aimee, I think you mean Oreet Ashery? More information can be found in her profile on the Feminist Art Base: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/oreet_ashery.php?i=266"
By shelley

"Hi, I am trying to find the name of the artist who took and is in the photograph that follows- http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/664/Global_Feminisms_Remix/image/216/Global_Feminisms_Remix._%7C08032007_-_03032008%7C._Installation_view. I believe the artist takes pictures of herself dressed as a man but then exposes her femaleness, as in the photo of her dressed as an Ascetic Jew exposing her breast. Can you help me find her information? Thanks in advance- Aimee Record"
By Aimee Record

"For more information on Louis Schanker and the New York Art Scene of the mid 1900's go to http://www.LouisSchanker.info "
By Lou Siegel

June 4, 1951: Salute to Paris
June 8, 1951: Art Workshop for Talented Young People
July 14, 1951: All One Sees That's Japanese: Japan of the 18th and 19th Centuries, Prints of Gallatin Collection
September 8, 1951: Ceramics Today
September 12, 1951: A Century of Portrait Photography
September 28, 1951: Paintings by Children of Hawaii
October 5, 1951: 32 Artists Who Teach
October 10, 1951: Prints by H. N. Werkman
November 15, 1951: Revolution and Tradition

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Prints, Drawings and Photographs

Over the years, the collections of the Brooklyn Museum have been organized and reorganized in different ways. Collections of the former Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs include works on paper that may fall into other categories: American Art, European Art, Asian Art, Contemporary Art, and Photography.

The Brooklyn Museum Archives maintains a collection of historical press releases. Many of these have been scanned and made available on our Web site. The releases range from brief announcements to extensive articles; images of the original releases have been included for your reference. Please note that all the original typographical elements, including occasional errors, have been retained. Releases may also contain errors as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about corrections.

For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the informative text panels written by the curator or organizer. Called "didactics," these panels are presented to the public during the exhibition's run, and we reproduce them here for your reference and archival interest. Please note that any illustrations on the original didactics have not been retained, and that the text may contain errors as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about corrections.

For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the objects from the Brooklyn Museum collection that were in the installation. These objects are listed here for your reference and archival interest, but the list may be incomplete and does not contain objects owned by other institutions or lenders.

This section utilizes the New York Times API in order to display related materials in New York Times publications.

Exhibitions: A Century of Portrait Photography

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