Artist
Frederick Sommer (American, born Italy, 1905–1999)American, born Italy, 1905–1999
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Paracelsus
Date1959
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 5/8 × 10 3/16 in. (34.5 × 25.9 cm)
Sheet: 13 5/8 × 10 3/16 in. (34.5 × 25.9 cm)
Mount: 19 × 15 3/8 in. (48.3 × 39.1 cm)
Sheet: 13 5/8 × 10 3/16 in. (34.5 × 25.9 cm)
Mount: 19 × 15 3/8 in. (48.3 × 39.1 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Sara Morgan, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.2311
Not on view
Explore Further
Department
PhotographySpecial Collections
Object Type
a background in landscape architecture, Frederick Sommer came to focus on
photography in the late 1930s while continuing to work in a variety of media,
including poetry, drawing, and painting. While Sommer often found his subjects
in the outside world, he sometimes created them in the darkroom: Paracelsus is a cameraless image printed
through cellophane sheets that Sommer had painted and sandwiched between two
sheets of glass. He titled the resulting picture, which looks remarkably like a
male torso, after a 16th-century Swiss physician and alchemist who was
persecuted for rejecting medicine as it was then taught in universities, advocating
instead mystical practices alongside empirical observation of the human body.
For Sommer and several Surrealist artists with whom he associated, the
alchemist-doctor represented the possibility of combining the reality and
mystery of the physical and spiritual worlds.
Provenanceartist, Prescott; PaceMacGill Gallery, New York
Exhibition HistoryExhibited in, "American Vision: Photographers from the West, Selections from the Manfred Heiting Collection purchased by the Brown Foundation for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from August 23-February 1, 2004.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, upper left: Paracelsus, 1957
Signed and dated in pencil, verso of mount, center: Frederick Sommer 1957
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, upper right: FS.077.3
Signed and dated in pencil, verso of mount, center: Frederick Sommer 1957
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, upper right: FS.077.3
Signed and dated in pencil, verso of mount, center: Frederick Sommer 1957
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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