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From the Back-Window "291"

A work made of platinum print.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of platinum print.

Date:

1915

Artist:

Alfred Stieglitz
American, 1864–1946

About this artwork

Stieglitz took this photograph from the back window of the gallery 291, possibly inspired by the fractured, geometric canvases of the Cubist painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the focus of an exhibition there just months earlier. Yet at the same time that Stieglitz was exploring modern art, he was also looking back to the 19th-century photographs of David Octavius Hill. He wrote to R. Child Bayley around that time, “I have done quite some photography recently. It is intensely direct. Portraits. Buildings from my back window at 291, a whole series of them, a few landscapes and interiors. All interrelated. I know nothing outside of Hill’s work which I think is so direct, and quite so intensely honest.”

For more on the Alfred Stieglitz collection at the Art Institute, along with in-depth object information, please visit the website: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Alfred Stieglitz

Title

From the Back-Window "291"

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1915

Medium

Platinum print

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, right center, in graphite: [illegible symbol]; verso, lower left, in graphite: | - M

Dimensions

24.5 × 19.4 cm (image) 25.2 × 20.2 cm (paper)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Reference Number

1949.710

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/66321/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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