A selection of some 60 photographs in the Gallery’s collection made possible by Robert B. Menschel are on view in an exhibition that examines how the act of posing for a portrait changed with the invention of the medium. Featured works come from the early 1840s—just after photography was invented—through the 1990s. The exhibition includes pictures by Lewis Carroll, Edward Weston, Man Ray, Robert Frank, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, and Brassaï, in addition to photographs by scientists, commercial practitioners, and amateurs. Menschel has been a generous supporter of the Gallery since his 1989 donation of funds helped establish the photography collection. Since then, his support has made possible the acquisition of more than 450 photographs. Most recently, Menschel generously pledged 54 photographs from his personal collection.
The exhibition is curated by Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.
Posing for the Camera
Gifts from Robert B. Menschel
September 17, 2017 – January 28, 2018
National Gallery of Art
4th & Constitution Ave NW Washington, DC
www.nga.gov
William Henry Fox Talbot, The Reverend Calvert Jones in the Cloisters at Lacock Abbey, 1845, salted paper print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Promised Gift of Robert B. Menschel
Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes, Portrait of a Child, 1850s, daguerreotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Joyce and Robert B. Menschel Fund
American 19th Century, Portrait of a Man, c. 1850, daguerreotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund and Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Lorina and Alice Liddell in Chinese Dress, 1860, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, The Ahmanson Foundation, and New Century Fund
Constant Alexandre Famin, Forest Scene, c. 1865, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel Fund
Thomas Eakins, William H. Macdowell, 1884, platinum print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Heinrich Kühn, Walther Kühn, 1911, gum dichromate over platinum print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel Fund
James Van Der Zee, Couple, 1924, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel Fund
Edward Weston, Neil – Asleep, 1925, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Promised Gift of Robert B. Menschel
György Kepes, Untitled (Berlin), 1931, gelatin silver print with black gouache, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Man Ray, Electricity, from Electricity, 1931, photogravure, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Promised Gift of Robert B. Menschel
Brassaï, Lucian Freud, 1954, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel Fund
