Imogene Cunningham (1883-1976) was the fifth of ten children born to Isaac Burns and Susan Elizabeth Cunningham. Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Seattle, Washington, she was inquisitive and interested in everything. She graduated with honors in 1907 from the University of Washington, having majored in chemistry. She was elected to membership in the Alpha Chapter of Pi Beta Phi. 

In 1901, Cunningham purchased for $15 a 4”x5” view camera, and she enrolled in the correspondence course to learn how to take pictures. She earned some of her college tuition by photographing plants for the botany department. With the help of her chemistry professor, she learned about photographic processes. Her graduation thesis was titled “Modern Processes of Photography.” After graduation, Cunningham worked for Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), one of America’s premier photographers of the American West. She learned platinum printing and assisted in the production of his book The North American Indian. 

 

Cunningham was awarded in 1909 a Pi Beta Phi Graduate Fellowship to study photographic chemistry at the Technical University in Dresden, Germany. Her aim was to discover a printing solution that was less expensive than platinum, then in use. Her final paper was “About the direct development of platinum paper for brown tones.” Her process increased printing speed and the clarity of highlights, and produced sepia tones. On her return home, she met noted American photographers Alvin Langdon Colburn (1882-1966) in London and Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and Gertrude Kasebier (1842-1934) in New York. Cunningham opened her photographic studio in Seattle in 1910, and she quickly became successful.

“Wood Beyond the World I” (1910) (13.5’’x9’’) (gelatine silver print) likely was influenced by Kasebier’s hazy photographic images of imaginary worlds described in the legend of King Arthur. The Wood Beyond the World (1894) was a fantasy novel written by William Morris (1834-1896), the English Pre-Raphaelite artist, who established the William Morris Company that produced fabric and wallpaper prints still popular today. Cunningham’s photograph is a depiction of the enchanted wood where an unhappy husband encounters a mysterious maiden. Achieving the soft focus with just the right amount of contrast between dark and light is complicated. The photograph presents the viewer with a dreamworld.

 

Cunningham was the first woman photographer to have an exhibition (1913) at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her portraits were included at An International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in New York in 1914. Wilson’s Photographic Magazine published a portfolio of her work.  She married Roi George Patridge in 1915, and they had three sons. They moved to San Francisco in 1917. Patridge began to teach art at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1920.

While raising the children, Cunningham began her close-up botanical photographic series. She planted a garden in order to study various plants. “Two Callas” (1925) (20’’x16’’) (gelatin silver print) represents her transition to sharp-focused prints. She said, “The reason during the twenties that I photographed plants was that I had three children under the age of four to take care of, so I was cooped up. I had a garden available and I photographed them indoors. Later when I was free, I did other things.” At this same time, Georgia O’Keeffe was painting her large-scale, close-up flower details. Since both artists were in the Stieglitz studio, there was much speculation about the connection of their work.  Although they knew each other and each other’s work, neither artist was influenced by the other. “Two Callas” has become an iconographic Cunningham image. The negative had been lost for many years until she found it in 1973. She made several more prints before her death.

 

“Magnolia Blossom” (1925) (11’’x14’’) (gelatin silver print) is one of several studies of magnolia plants. The detail of the stamen and pistil is precise, and the more delicate curves of the petals provide a marvelous contrast.  

Cunningham co-founded Group f/64 with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston on November 15, 1932.  f/64 is the smallest focal aperture on a camera. Rather than moving in an abstract direction, like the New York photographers, f/64 wanted precision “pure and straight.” According to Cunningham, “f/64 is not only American, it is Western American. It isn’t even American. It’s western…This does not mean that we all used the small aperture, but we were for reality. That was what we talked about too. Not being phony, you know.” The group of eleven photographers held their first exhibition in 1932 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. 

Cunningham founded the California Horticultural Society in 1933. Her photographs of plants were so detailed that they often were used by horticulturalists and other scientists in their work. 

 

Cunningham’s photographs during the 1930’s and until the 1960’s were mostly portraits. “Alfred Stieglitz at An American Place” (1934) was commissioned by Stieglitz (1864-1946). He established Gallery 291 in New York City, and it was the place to be if you were a modern American painter or photographer. Cunnigham and Stieglitz met in 1910. He supported her work, collaborated with her on projects, and the two formed a close working relationship. Stieglitz operated his New York City gallery, An American Place, from 1929 until his death in 1946. Stieglitz chose to stand in front of a painting by his wife, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Among the American modernist painters Stieglitz promoted were Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Paul Stand, and O’Keeffe. He also introduced Americans to the work of some European modernists such as Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Matisse. 

 

Her success in portrait photography resulted in an invitation to Hollywood in 1930 and in 1932 to do portraits for Vanity Fair, Sunset, and other magazines. Cunningham tried out color photography for some of the Sunset pictures. Some examples of Cunningham’s portraits are those of Frida Kahlo, Gertude Stein, Cary Grant, and Spencer Tracy.  Cunningham enjoyed capturing the motion of the human body, “Martha Graham” (1935) is one of many portraits she made of Graham.  She works here with a double negative, one a facial portrait and the other a simple dance move. The sharpness in the face is contrasted with the soft focus of the dance pose, allowing two aspects of Graham’s personality to be shown. Cunningham explained, “One must be able to gain an understanding at short notice and close range, of the beauties of character, intellect, and spirit so as to be able to draw out [their] best qualities…”

 

Cunningham and her husband were divorced in 1934, and the burden of supporting herself and her three sons caused her to diversify subjects in her work. She began taking pictures of industrial sites, and she took up street photography and documentary work. “Where Children Play” (1955) (8.7”x7.1”) revealed the love of her children and her social consciousness. As always, the photograph sends a clear message. The young boy stands alone in the doorway of a shack. A ragged awning hangs from the top of the door. Trash lies on the ground. Cunningham’s ability to spot a moment in time that depicts a message was always with her. She called these street pictures her “stolen pictures” She tried to hide herself so the subject was unaware of her presence. She still was using the same small 4”x5” view camera.

Cunningham was invited by Ansel Adams to take a faculty position in the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts.  Dorothea Lange and Minor White, both photographers for President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration, also were on the faculty. Her own work and her teaching position allowed Cunningham to travel to Paris and Europe in the1960s. The Paris “stolen pictures” were taken with her Rolleiflex.

 

Cunningham photographed a wide variety of subjects, including herself. Her first self-portrait in 1906, when she was in college, was nude.  “Self Portrait on Geary Street” (San Francisco) (1958) (gelatine silver print) (8”x7”) captures two sides of her work. Through a glass storefront window, an assortment of objects can be seen: a curtain rod, a white glass lamp globe, and a broken chandelier. The diagonals created by the large window pane, the objects on the floor, and the sunlight through the window lead the viewer’s eye directly to Cunningham, standing behind the glass. The storefront is in sharp focus.

Cunningham stands in the doorway area of the shop, behind the glass window, placing her in softer focus. She wears a dark cloak and carries her small camera. Behind her is the other shop window that also contains an assortment of objects, including plates and a knick-knack shelf.  That side of the shop window is soft-focused. The circular shapes of objects and Cunningham are in contrast to the straight edges of the windows and doors. This found subject, as was always the case with Cunningham, contains numerous elements to ponder. 

Cunningham constantly struggled with her reputation because she was a woman, and women were considered by many not to be as good as men. She joined San Francisco Women Artists, organized to support, promote, and increase women’s role in the arts. She was a resource for women artists, offering advice and connections in the art and business worlds.

She applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964 when she was 81 years old, but she was turned down.  She was awarded the Fellowship in 1970 when she was 87. The $5000 award allowed her to make new prints from her old negatives. During these years she was awarded several honorary doctoral degrees and was given important solo exhibitions. “Imogene Cunninham Day” was proclaimed by San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto on November 12, 1970. In 1973 the San Francisco Art Commission declared her Artist of the Year.

 

Cunninham never stopped finding new subjects to photograph. In 1975 she started what she thought would be a two-year project to publish her photographs in a book. She was getting older, but she was determined to move forward. She began seeking out older people and visited them in their homes, in hospitals, and convents. She talked with them, got to know them, and took their pictures. She completed her task. After Ninety (1977) was published the year after she died.

Imogene Cummingham was internationally celebrated. Her appearance on Johnny Carson in 1976 brought even more fame, more exhibitions, and more awards. She was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2004.

When asked so often which of her photographs was her favorite, she replied, “The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”

 

---

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Pierre August Renoir was born in 1841 in Limoges, France. The town of Limoges was the center of the famous hand-painted porcelain works. Renoir’s parents were members of an active artist and artisan community. His father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress.  The family moved to Paris in 1845, and they lived near the Louvre. At age 15, Renoir served as an apprentice at the Paris Limoges Factory, earning enough money to help his parents buy their house. His initial training as an artist required mastery of intricate brushwork, attention to detail, use of rich colors, and a love of flowers.

In 1862, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he became great friends with fellow students Sisley, Bazille, and Monet. Chaffing from the realism of the classic style, they searched for new techniques and subjects. They began in 1864 to work outdoors in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Discoveries about the effects of light on subjects from the development of photography spurred the artists to create what became their signature style: Impressionism.

In 1876 Renoir began to paint figure subjects along with landscape and flower paintings. “A Girl with a Watering Can” (1876) (39”x29’’) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) is a portrait of a young girl who lived in his neighborhood. It illustrates Renoir’s fully developed Impressionist style along with lessons learned from porcelain painting. The charming, young girl is enjoying the sunny day. She holds a green watering can and two daisies. Her eyes are blue and her cheeks rosy. Her elegant blue dress is decorated with wide white bands that look like lace, the type of detail Renoir painted in Limoges. Her outfit is completed with a pair of matching blue shoes. The tops of her white stockings call attention to her lacey bloomers. Renoir used the color red to guide the viewer’s eye through the composition: red roses in the front, red lips, and red flowers in the background. The red bow in her hair draws the eye from left to right, to the group of red flowers behind her and the one red flower in the distance to her left.

Renoir used color dots of yellow, purple, red, pink, and blue, visible only up close, to portray the beige path that runs diagonally across the painting. He painted the lawn vibrant green, blue, and yellow, using visible but subtle brushstrokes. He used broader brush strokes to portray the leaves and flower petals of the plants in the foreground. In contrast, his brushwork on the flowers behind the girl does not attempt to create an individual flower or leaf. 

Renoir’s paintings of people are appealing. They also fulfill his desire to create a complex work of art. 

“La Promenade” (1876) (67”x43”) (Frick Museum, New York City) is a winter scene in a city park. The focus is on two young blond girls, who look as if they could be twins, and their older sister.  All are dressed in winter clothing. The eldest wears a blue velvet jacket with fur trimmed sleeves. The younger girls wear matching blue-green outfits trimmed with fur. One has a fur muff and the other carries a doll. Hats of flowers and fur are perched on their heads. White hose and leather boots complete their outfits.  Beyond them on the path, eleven other people are suggested.  Two black and white shapes on the path suggest playful dogs. 

Renoir grew up with a tailor and a seamstress as parents, and he fell in love and married a dressmaker. His paintings show an unusual amount of knowledge of and interest in depicting the fashion of the time.  “La Promenade” was in the second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876. Although the work did not receive much notice at that time, Renoir’s ability to present fashionable and delightful women and children eventually brought him international fame.

As a result of his earlier successes, Renoir gained patrons and friends from the new professional class. Paul Bernard, a banker and diplomat, became a friend and patron in 1879. “Children’s Afternoon at Wargemont” was one of his many paintings Bernard and his wife commissioned. The setting is the Chateau de Wargemont in Normandy, the Bernard’s second home outside Paris. In the painting the Bernard daughters Marguerite, Lucie, and Marthe enjoy a pleasant afternoon.

Renoir made several trips to Algeria and Italy beginning in 1881. On the trips to Italy, he studied the paintings of Raphael, Rubens, and the Rococo artists Boucher and Fragonard. Their work influenced Renoir to alter his style, and he entered what art historians call his “classical” period. “Children’s Afternoon at Wargemont” (1884) (50”x68”) is still full of bright sunlight, and the theme of a peaceful family day continues. Gone are the suggestive and flowing brushstrokes. They are replaced with precise details in clothing, furniture, wood floor, carpet and curtain patterns, wall paneling, and a pot of flowers. 

The two girls are dressed in the fashion of the time and in accord with their ages. The girl in the blue and white sailor dress holds onto her doll, and her eyes directly engage the viewer. Her sister is sewing, and her other sister, slouched on the nearby couch, reads a book. Renoir created a composition of blues and oranges, complementary colors, and complex designs.   

Renoir suffered from arthritis beginning in 1881, and the disease became increasingly debilitating. He had the first attack of rheumatism in 1894. Renoir had married Aline Charigot, a seamstress and model he met in 1880. They had three sons, Pierre (1885), Jean (1894) and Claude (1901). “Gabrielle Renard and Infant Son Jean” (1895) (26”x21”) depicts Gabrielle, Aline’s cousin, who moved to the Renoir home in Montmartre at age 16 to act as Jean’s nanny. She often modeled for Renoir, and she helped him to paint when his hands became crippled by placing the brushes between his fingers. Renoir never stopped painting, but in his later works he necessarily returned to looser brush work. His love of his family is evident in this work and many others.

“The Artist’s Family” (1896) (68”x54”) is Renoir’s largest portrait with life-size figures. The setting is the garden of the family home, Château des Brouillards in Montmartre, where the family moved in 1890. Aline stands at the center with their eleven-year-old son Pierre, standing next to her. Aline’s hat is a remarkable fashion creation of the time, and a red coat with a fur collar are draped over her arm. Pierre leans in affectionately, holding onto his mother’s arm. 

Gabrielle kneels down to support young Jean as he stands for the painting. Jean’s elaborate white bonnet and dress are certainly fashionable. The composition of the family forms a triangle that Renoir creates with Aline’s light hat and blouse at the top, the sailor suit and black skirt in the middle, and the white clothing of Jean and Garbielle at the bottom. The protruding edge of Gabrielle’s black skirt anchors the triangle. Necessary to balance the composition is the young girl in red, one of the neighbor’s children. Her red dress and pose, direct the viewer’s eye to Aline. The black sash on her dress and the black ribbon on her hat also carry through the dark elements of the composition. She carries a ball with red, yellow, and green stripes. The ball is a simple device that connects the touches of beige and yellow, and the green landscape in the distance. Renoir kept this painting for the rest of his life. 

The Renoir family moved in 1907 from Montmartre to Cagnes-sur-Mer, near the Mediterranean, to enable Renoir to take spa treatments and for better weather. Renoir tried sculpture as another outlet, but he never stopped painting no matter how disabled he became. He died in 1919. His last words were “I think I’m beginning to learn something about it.”

His painting and his family were his passion. He described his thoughts on his art: “The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.”

Happy Mother’s Day

---

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Images of Mary and Christ are plentiful, as are images of them sitting in a rose garden. Since most of the population from the Middle Ages onward through the 17th and 18th centuries could not read, religious painting and sculpture served to educate the congregation of believers. Iconography was a significant aspect of painting and sculpture. Images and everyday objects related to the stories helped the faithful remember the lessons as they went about their daily lives.

Images of the Madonna and Child in a rose garden were popular. “Madonna in a Rose Bower” (1440-1442) (20”x16”) (oil and tempera on wood panel) by German painter Stefan Lochner (1410-1451) is a stunning example. Mary and the infant Jesus sit on a red velvet bolster in an enclosed garden. The ground is a green carpet of perfectly patterned leaves. Young angels lean on the garden bench, looking adoringly at the mother and child. Four angels play music on a harp, a small organ, and two stringed instruments. Roses grow on a square metal trellis behind them.  Above them, two angels hold a gold cloth of honor, placed on thrones of kings and for Mary, Queen of Heaven. God, the father, and a white Dove, the Holy Spirit, look down on the scene from above. God, hands raised in blessing, and Jesus on Mary’s lap, represent the Holy Trinity. Lochner used gold lavishly to represent the heavenly space.

White roses are symbols of Mary’s purity, and red roses are symbols of the Passion of Christ. Jesus holds an apple which has been given to him by one of the young angels. Apples represent the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and Mary and Christ are referred to as the second Adam and Eve, who take away sin. Strawberry plants in the garden produce both flowers and fruit at the same time, a reference to Mary as both a mother and a virgin.

Mary’s broach and crown are examples of a painting technique used by Lockner, en rende-bosse, or encrusted enamel. In the 14th Century, encrusted enamel was applied to create three-dimensional pieces. Mary’s broach and crown are encrusted with gemstones. The figures on Mary’s broach are a virgin and a unicorn, both symbols of purity.

“Madonna and Child and Saints in an Enclosed Garden” (1440-1460) (47”x58”) (oil) (National Gallery of Art) is by Netherlands painter Master of Flemalle, who has been identified as Robert Campin (1375-1444). He was a contemporary of Jan Van Eyck and teacher of Rogier van der Weyden. He settled in the Belgian city of Tournai in 1405-06, and he was a free master in the Guild of Goldsmiths and Painters. He purchased a house in Tournai in 1408. Campin was a popular artist who received numerous commissions from individuals, guilds, the Church, and civic groups. Records show he owned several houses, bought city bonds, and invested in mortgages. He was a prosperous artist. 

“Madonna and Child and Saints in an Enclosed Garden” illustrates the tradition of symbolism in religious art along with increasing interest in depicting nature. The Madonna and Child are again placed in an enclosed garden, a reference to Mary’s purity. Although she does not wear a crown, she is placed on a golden throne with an elaborate cloth of honor behind her. Her feet rest on a brocade pillow. She wears the traditional blue robe, this time a rich dark blue with a gold embroidered border. Jesus reaches for a quince held out to him by St. Barbara. The quince is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. It also is associated with love and fertility. From the Greeks onward, it was presented to the bride on her wedding night. 

St. Barbara, dressed in red, was an early Christian saint. Her father was a rich pagan who locked her in a high tower to protect her from the world. While he was away, she had three windows built into the tower instead of the two he had planned, because the number three was the symbol of the Trinity. She secretly had become a Christian. Discovering her conversion, the prefect of the province had her dragged from the tower and tortured for several days. Her wounds healed overnight. Ultimately, she was beheaded. Her tower stands behind her in the garden.

In the corner of the painting, St Catherine of Alexandria, Egypt, reads an illuminated manuscript. She is the patron saint of students, teachers, and librarians. The daughter of the governor of Alexandria, Catherine went to the Emperor Maxentius to protest when he began the cruel punishment of Christians. He threw her into prison and subjected her to numerous tortures intended to kill her. She was fed by a dove from heaven, and her wounds were tended by angels. After these attempts failed, Maxentius ordered her run over by a wheel with spikes. The wheel broke. Catherine then was beheaded. The sword used to behead her and a broken wheel are placed at her feet in the painting.

John the Baptist, in the bright green cloak, stands beside the throne and holds a lamb. He traditionally is painted with unruly hair and a beard, representing his time spent in the wilderness. Under his green cloak he wears only a short tunic of animal skins. The lamb is the symbol of Christ. John the Baptist recognized Christ when he baptized Him, and called him “Lamb of God.” 

St Anthony of Egypt, the elderly bearded man in the dark gray robe and leaning on a cane, was raised as a Christian and preached the teachings of the Church for many years. He later became a semi-hermit, living a life of solitude and prayer. He helped to found several monasteries. He overcame numerous temptations visited on him by the Devil. St Anthony may have been a pig herder at one time. However, he ate no meat during his lifetime. The pig, a symbol of the sin of gluttony, most likely is a reference to his surviving all the Devil’s temptations. St Anthony is the patron saint of swineherds, domestic animals, and monks. 

The paradise garden contains several other flowering plants. Behind St Catherine is a purple iris, also known as a sword lily. The purple iris traditionally represents nobility.

“Virgin Among Virgins” (1475) (43’’x67’’) (oil) was painted by the Master of the Legend of St Lucy, whose known work is dated between 1480 and1510. Although his name remains unknown, several paintings have been attributed to this Netherlandish painter from Bruges. Mary and Christ are seated in the center of a partially enclosed rose garden. The cloth of honor behind her is held by two angels. Her feet rest on a black and gold cushion, and she wears the traditional blue gown and a crown. The background is a panoramic scene of the city of Bruges. Dating for the Master of St Lucy’s paintings is often determined by the continued construction of the tower of Bruges.

Eleven virgin saints are presented in a semi-circle around Mary and Christ. Next to Christ is St Catherine, her red gown decorated with wheels and her hand raised as she marries Christ. Opposite is St Barbara in blue velvet with her black cloak decorated with towers. She too became the mystical bride of Christ. Mary Magdelene kneels on the ground, her bare feet toward the viewer. She holds the gold pot of ointment with which she anointed Christ’s body in the tomb. 

St Agnes, in a red gown, is seated on the ground and holds a lamb. Her beauty was so extraordinary that she had many suitors, all of whom she refused, claiming she was mystically married to Christ. She holds up the wedding ring. Imprisoned and tortured, she was sentenced to death by burning. The fire went out, and a soldier cut off her head, or stabbed her in the throat. 

St Ursala, who wears a gold and black brocade gown and is reading a book, undertook a pilgrimage from Britain to Rome with 1000 virgins. Having traveled as far as Cologne, they were attacked by Huns and killed with arrows. The point and fletching of an arrow can be seen under her gown, and an arrow rests on the border of the painting.

Three martyred saints sit behind St Agnes. St Cunera, in a light blue gown, holds a small cradle and an arrow. A companion of St Ursula, she may have survived the massacre of the virgins on the pilgrimage. St Agatha, in black, holds a pair of tongs with her breast. As a Christian she also refused to marry, and her suitor was so angered that he had her breasts cut off to disfigure her. St Margaret of Antioch, in white, was to be cast into the belly of a dragon sent by the Devil. She raised her cross and the dragon’s skin parted, freeing her. Behind her, in the distant landscape, St George kills a dragon.

Behind St Ursula and dressed in white is St Apolonia, who holds a tooth in tongs. St Lucy, in green, holds a plate on which her two eyeballs are placed. She was beautiful and much desired, as were all the female saints, but she refused all marriage proposals because of her faith. According to several stories, she plucked out her own eyes to prevent men from desiring her, or their removal was part of her torture.  The last saint, who has not been identified, holds a crown and a bell. Behind them are red roses, an apple tree, a grape vine, and a quince tree.

---

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.