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Lot Essay
Portraits of Kühn's four children, a project he began in 1900, comprise more of the photographer's body of work than any other subjects. Kühn would pose his sons, daughters and their nanny in various costumes and settings as part of both his continual study of tonal gradations, as well as his invocation of self-contained worlds and involvement in aesthetic escapism. By the time of this present portrait, Kühn was already interested in portraits of children by the American photographers Clarence Hudson White and Gertrude Käsebier that expressed similar themes of innocence and naturalism.
Walter, the subject of this present portrait, was Kühn's oldest son and showed an interest in art at an early age. This prompted Kühn to photograph his son in poses looking at canvases, in the act of painting or, as is the case in the present image, in contemplation. Kühn's portraits of his children were perhaps more than anything a part of the photographer's formal interests in achieving fine gradations and subtle transitions in the photographic image. He was known to utilize a pocket spectroscope and charts that displayed monochromatic equivalents of specific colors with indications of what chemical combinations to use in order to achieve these equivalents.
The photographic process employed in the present lot is gum-bichromate over platinum, a technique Kühn often used during this period and one that he credited Edward Steichen as having mastered. Kühn first started to combine gum-bichromate with the platinum print in 1906 and enjoyed combining the painterly, decorative effect of gum with the delicacy of the underlying platinum image. He was also known to brighten, darken and harmonize areas of the developed picture in order to intensify certain effects. Such harmonies and delicate transitions that are characteristic of Kühn's most successful works are beautifully on display in this portrait of Walter Kühn.
Walter, the subject of this present portrait, was Kühn's oldest son and showed an interest in art at an early age. This prompted Kühn to photograph his son in poses looking at canvases, in the act of painting or, as is the case in the present image, in contemplation. Kühn's portraits of his children were perhaps more than anything a part of the photographer's formal interests in achieving fine gradations and subtle transitions in the photographic image. He was known to utilize a pocket spectroscope and charts that displayed monochromatic equivalents of specific colors with indications of what chemical combinations to use in order to achieve these equivalents.
The photographic process employed in the present lot is gum-bichromate over platinum, a technique Kühn often used during this period and one that he credited Edward Steichen as having mastered. Kühn first started to combine gum-bichromate with the platinum print in 1906 and enjoyed combining the painterly, decorative effect of gum with the delicacy of the underlying platinum image. He was also known to brighten, darken and harmonize areas of the developed picture in order to intensify certain effects. Such harmonies and delicate transitions that are characteristic of Kühn's most successful works are beautifully on display in this portrait of Walter Kühn.