Paul Strand
Bottle, Book, and Orange, Twin Lakes, Connecticut
1915
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Paul Strand
Bottle, Book, and Orange, Twin Lakes, Connecticut
1915
Physical Qualities
Silver-platinum print, Sheet: 268 x 295 mm. (10 9/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
Image: 261 x 289 mm. (10 1/4 x 11 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from the Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection; and partial gift of George H. Dalsheimer, Baltimore
Object Number
1988.577
Bottle, Book, and Orange is a significant work from Strand’s series created in Twin Lakes, Connecticut. It depicts a carefully arranged still life, placed on the floor and photographed from above. Although Strand did not specifically attribute this series to Cézanne’s influence, he explored the abstract methods of Picasso and others at this time. Strand’s still-life compositions represent the zenith of abstraction in American photography, and the point at which his work most clearly approximates Cézanne’s example as he allows pure form to dominate, calling attention to the object’s own visual qualities.
Looking through the Lens: Photography 1900-1960
Cézanne and American Modernism
BMA Today, Spring 2008, ill. p. 4.
Maria Morris Hambourg, "Paul Strand: Circa 1916" (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998) p. 33 and no. 22, repr..
Stavitsky, Gail, ed., and Rothkopf, Katherine, ed. Cézanne and American Modernism. Montclair, NJ: Montclair Art Museum; Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, c2009.
Inscribed: On mount, at lower right, in graphite: "-Paul Strand-1916-"
Markings: None
