Balzac, The Silhouette--4 A.M. / Edward Jean Steichen
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 2006/1.155
- Title
- Balzac, The Silhouette--4 A.M.
- Artist
- Edward Jean Steichen
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- (Luxembourg, 1879 - 1973)
- Medium and Support
- photogravure on laid Japan tissue
- Object Creation Date
- October 1908
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase made possible by the Sarah and Otto Graf Endowment and the Friends of the Museum of Art
- Dimensions
- 21 cm x 30.1 cm (8 1/4 in. x 11 7/8 in.)
- Primary Object Classification
- Photograph
- Primary Object Type
- photogravure
- Physical Description
- This photogravure shows a hazy gray and black outdoor scene. There is a dark cloaked figure depicted in silhouette and a suggestion of trees and vegetation. In the background is a misty gray hillside and expansive sky.
- Subject Matter
- In 1908, Edward Steichen received an invitation from Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) to photograph his controversial sculpture of the French writer Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Rodin’s plaster model for a monument to this celebrated author had been rejected by the society that commissioned it and ridiculed in the press when it was exhibited at the Salon of 1898. Ten years after the scandal he still hoped the Balzac might be understood by its critics and that Steichen, whose work he admired, could help to achieve this.
- Rodin recommended that the plaster sculpture be photographed at night in moonlight and Steichen agreed. Photographing in the dark requires leaving the film exposed for long periods and Steichen experimented with times that ranged from fifteen minutes to an hour. Of the resulting images, this is one of three that Steichen thought the most successful. When Rodin finally saw a set of the prints a week or two later he said, “You will make the world understand my Balzac through these pictures. They are like Christ walking in the desert.”
- Secondary Keywords
- image form
- buildings and the land
- objects we use
- settlements and landscapes
- visual works
- visual works by form
- visual works by subject type
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 3015 x 2345
- File Size
- 311 KB
- Record
- 2006/1.155
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.155/2006_1.155.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Balzac, The Silhouette--4 A.M.; Edward Jean Steichen." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.155/2006_1.155.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 24, 2024.
