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Rodin, Le Penseur

Sepia toned photograph, heavily shadowed, a man is foregrounded in front of two figural sculptures.
© 2018 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • Sepia toned photograph, heavily shadowed, a man is foregrounded in front of two figural sculptures.

Date:

1902

Artist:

Edward Steichen
American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973

About this artwork

“What is true of the oil or watercolor is equally true of the photograph,” Edward Steichen once said, aptly expressing the overt pictorial intent of Rodin, Le Penseur. This romantic silhouette portrait depicts Auguste Rodin seated in his studio opposite his famous work Le Penseur, with his sculpture of Victor Hugo in the background. In 1902, the year he made this photograph, Steichen believed he would become a painter, and he visited Rodin and his circle of artists and admirers often. But as a founding member of Alfred Stieglitz’s Photo-Secession group, Steichen increasingly created photographs that were the artistic equivalents of his paintings, in the hope of winning artistic credibility for the newer art form. Here the artist expertly manipulated the elastic and expressive gum-bichromate method, in which the application of water and brushwork in the printing process can soften or omit details, reduce dark spaces, and even change light into dark (and vice versa). The result is a combination of two separate images, both dramatically posed and lit, into a striking, painterly photograph.

For more on Edward Steichen’s work in the Art Institute’s collection visit the website: Edward Steichen’s World War I Years.

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

Edward Steichen

Title

Rodin, Le Penseur

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 1902

Medium

Gum bichromate print

Inscriptions

Inscribed recto, lower left, in white pencil: Steichen / MDCCCCII; inscribed verso, on mount, upper right, sideways, in graphite: [ROD]IN "LE PENSEUR / BY / STEICHEN; verso, on mount, center, sideways, in graphite: [?]roden [?/crossed out]; verso, on mount, upper left, diagonally, in graphite: 1/4 101 Brush / Aluminum Brz [?] tone / oak b[illegible] 131 / color / 3/8 101 Brush Aluminum Brz / tone; verso, on mount, upper left, in graphite: [drawing]; verso, on mount, lower left, sideways, in graphite: [drawing of matting instructions]; verso, on mount, lower left, sideways, in graphite: Steichen / if A as diag / Sr 10 1/4 x 12 3/4

Dimensions

Image/paper/mount: 26.2 × 32.6 cm (10 3/8 × 12 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Reference Number

1949.825

Copyright

© 2018 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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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