- Florence Henri
Sheet: 15 13/16 × 11 7/8 in. (40.2 × 30.2 cm)
Mount: 17 3/16 × 13 1/16 in. (43.7 × 33.2 cm)
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At the time Lucia Moholy photographed her, the American-born, Paris-based painter Florence Henri (1893–1982) had recently arrived at the Bauhaus, the influential art school in Dessau, Germany. There, she enrolled in the “preliminary course” taught by Lucia’s husband, László Moholy-Nagy, and lived in the couple’s home. With Lucia’s and László’s instruction and encouragement, Henri soon turned exclusively to photography, opening a portrait studio in Paris just two years later.
Lucia Moholy’s startlingly close-up portraits were far from the norm. “To the general public in Western Europe this style appears strange and exotic,” she wrote. “They find it interesting and worth discussing, but few of them wish to have their portraits taken in the same way.”
Provenance[Prakapas Gallery, Bronxville, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1985.
Exhibition History"Evocative Presence: Twentieth Century Photographs in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," February 27–May 1, 1988.
"Florence Henri: Artist-Photographer of the Avant- Garde," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, December 13, 1990–February 10, 1991; Detroit Institute of Arts, March 7–May 5, 1991; Mary & Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ilinois, May 30–August 4, 1991; University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, August 31–October 27, 1991; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 19, 1991–February 22, 1992.
"The Artist Portrayed," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 14–November 5, 1995.
“History of Photography I: Selections from the Museum's Collection,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 1, 2014–February 22, 2015.
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