PDF - Current Image & Data

The Heart of the Storm (Primary Title)

Anne W. Brigman, American, 1869 - 1950 (Photographer)

1902, printed 1912
American
Works On Paper
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
Photography
Mount (original third mount): 16 7/8 × 13 15/16 in. (42.86 × 35.4 cm)
Mount (original second mount): 11 13/16 × 9 3/4 in. (30 × 24.77 cm)
Mount (original first mount): 11 11/16 × 9 5/8 in. (29.69 × 24.45 cm)
Image: 9 3/4 × 7 3/4 in. (24.77 × 19.69 cm)
2017.207
Not on view

In The Heart of the Storm, an angel-like figure raises her right hand in a mudra, or blessing gesture, with the adjacent woman nestled against her. Both figures repeat the elongation and dark tones of the gnarled, windblown trees flanking them—suggesting a merging of civilized and natural realms. Anne Brigman had trained as a painter, and in this case, she scratched and drew on the negative, creating, among other forms, the halo above the woman at left. Early in her career, Brigman exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz’s famed Photo-Secession (291) gallery, her work appealing to Stieglitz for its conflation of nature and the female body.

original triple mount
Signed by the photographer in graphite below image left on first mount: "Anne Brigman"
Printed black ink artist's label adhered to third mount verso: "ANNE BRIGMAN / 683 BROCKHURST / OAKLAND / CALIFORNIA".
Titled and annotated, possibly by the photographer, in black ink on third mount verso: "The Heart of the Storm. / "Like one in the calm that is the centre of a cyclone" - / guarded by the very tornado around." / Edward Carpenter". Inscribed in an unidentified hand in graphite above artist label on third mount verso: "No. 9". Inscribed in an unidentified hand in graphite below artist label and annotation on third mount verso: "1376 B" and "292-1-92".
Eric and Jeanette Lipman Fund

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