George Henry Seeley
[Landscape with Two Figures]

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Images(2)

Artist George Henry Seeley (American, 1880–1955)American, 1880–1955

CultureAmerican

Titles

[Landscape with Two Figures]

Date1918

MediumGum bichromate over platinum print

DimensionsImage: 19 3/4 × 15 7/16 in. (50.2 × 39.2 cm)
Sheet: 19 3/4 × 15 7/16 in. (50.2 × 39.2 cm)
Mount: 19 3/4 × 15 7/16 in. (50.2 × 39.2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Krista and Michael Dumas

Object number2017.369

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionThe
youngest member of the PhotoSecession—Pictorialist photographers who asserted photography as
fine art at the turn of the 20th century—George Henry Seeley rendered scenes in
soft focus so as to meld his subjects with the hazy landscape. Seeley
demonstrated that photography could be as subtle and expressive as drawing and
painting, not merely a mechanical record of the visible world. In this image of
a lakeside, Seeley evokes a view of nature so dreamlike that land, water, and
sky become indistinct forms, recalling the Japanese woodblock prints that were
a popular source of inspiration among Pictorialists.
ProvenanceEstate of the artist; George Rinhart; [Christie's New York, 26 April 1988, Lot 351]; purchased by Paul F. Walter; Estate of Paul F. Walter; [Stair Galleries, Hudson, NY, November 15, 2017, lot 837]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Exhibition HistoryThe Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in “Intimations & Imaginings: The Photographs of George H. Seeley,” in May and June 1986, traveling afterwards to Smith College Museum of Art; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana; and the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed in graphite, recto, bottom left corner: George H. Seeley - // 1918

[no verso inscriptions]

N/A

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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