Object Details

GUID

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc36e7ea4f0-2cf2-4aec-946a-5e5ebc97cd63

Local Numbers

FSA A.01 12.01.2

Creator

Coburn, Alvin Langdon, 1882-1966

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919

Names

Freer Gallery of Art

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919

Collection Creator

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919

Topic

Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting

Art, American -- Collectors and collecting

Art -- Collectors and collecting

Creator

Coburn, Alvin Langdon, 1882-1966

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919

See more items in

Charles Lang Freer Papers

Charles Lang Freer Papers / Series 12: Photographs / 12.1: Portraits of Freer

Biographical / Historical

Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966) was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a middle class British family. Coburn began exploring photography after receiving a camera for his eighth birthday. However, it was not until a few years later that he began exploring photography seriously. Coburn opened his first studio in New York City in 1902 to exhibit his prints, and became part of a crowd that wanted to establish photography as art. He moved to London in 1904 to take portraits of celebrities, including an iconic one of George Bernard Shaw posed nude as Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker." Coburn not only shot portraits, but also unique street scenes of New York City. He was quite interested in creating the fractured affects of cubism and futurism through use of photography, as demonstrated in his "vortographs." He experimented with perspective and abstract patterns. Later in his life, Coburn became disinterested in photography as his interest in mysticism grew. He resumed photography in the 1950s before his death in 1966.

Extent

1 Item (linear foot)

Date

1909

Archival Repository

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Identifier

FSA.A.01, File FSA A.01 12.01.2

Type

Archival materials

Photographs

Collection Citation

Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA A.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Arrangement

Organized by country.

Collection Rights

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Genre/Form

Photographs

Scope and Contents

Photographs of Charles Lang Freer taken by Alvin Langdon Coburn, February 1909. They depict Freer in a variety of poses, such as leaning against a desk, examining some artwork, or simply facing the camera. One print was sent to the Freer Gallery in 1955 by a relative of Freer's business partner Frank Hecker. Two autochromes and 14 platinum prints.

Collection Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Record ID

ebl-1585218689097-1585218689850-0