Ezra Pound

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Artist Bill Brandt (British, born Germany, 1904–1983)British, born Germany, 1904–1983

CultureBritish

Titles

Ezra Pound

Date1928

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 7 1/2 × 6 3/8 in. (19.1 × 16.2 cm)
Sheet: 7 1/2 × 6 3/8 in. (19.1 × 16.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of Anne Wilkes Tucker in honor of David Bomford and Soni Véliz Bomford

Object number2019.538

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionIn the spring of 1928 Bill Brandt made his first important photograph—this portrait of American poet Ezra Pound (1885—1972). Pound was influential in avant-garde literary and artistic circles and introduced Brandt to his future mentor, Surrealist photographer Man Ray. Pound’s tight grin and uneasy expression of debonair intensity lends an almost menacing air to Brandt’s captivating portrait of a complex man who would later be a propagandist for the Axis powers in World War II. According to Brandt, “a good portrait ought to tell something of the subject’s past and suggest something of his future.”
ProvenanceAnne Wilkes Tucker, Houston; given to MFAH, 2019.
Exhibition History"Photographs by Bill Brandt: A Sense of Wonder," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Cameron Gallery, February 2-April 27, 2008.
Published References Meister, Sarah Hermanson. “Bill Brandt: Shadow & Light.” New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2013, p. 13 Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed in ink on sheet verso:
Ezra Pound
1928

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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