{
"data": {
"id": 153623,
"accession_number": "1987.151",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "The Inferno--Grand Canyon, 1919. Karl F. Struss (American, 1886\u20131981). Palladium print; image: 11.5 x 9.2 cm (4 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb Jr. in memory of Kenyon C. Bolton, 1987.151",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Inferno--Grand Canyon",
"creation_date": "1919",
"creation_date_earliest": 1919,
"creation_date_latest": 1919,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "palladium print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1900-1950",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 11.5 x 9.2 cm (4 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.115,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.092,
"width_inch": 3,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.457,
"height_inch": 18,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.356,
"width_inch": 14,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on print: \"Karl Struss [signed]\"; in pencil on mount: \"Karl Struss [signed]\"; \"5 [circled]\"; in pencil on verso: \" 'The Inferno-Grand Canyon' / Palladio print / $5 / 22195 / [an undistinguishable mark]\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310231,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1987",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).",
"opening_date": "1988-02-24T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311875,
"title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 185373,
"title": "American Space: Landscape Photography 1900-1950",
"description": "American Space: Landscape Photography 1900-1950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 6-May 23, 2001).",
"opening_date": "2001-01-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202729,
"title": "Shadows and Dreams: Pictorialist Photography in America",
"description": "Shadows and Dreams: Pictorialist Photography in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 5, 2015-January 17, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2015-09-05T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: \"Year in Review 1987,\" CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 87.",
"opening_date": "1988-02-24T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA, January 3 - May 23, 2001: \"American Space: Landscape Photography, 1900-1950.\"",
"opening_date": "2001-01-03T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (9/5/2015 - 1/17/2016); \"Pictorialist Photography\"",
"opening_date": "2015-09-05T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "During the first two decades of the 20th century, Struss was one of the most important photographers working with Pictorialism. After closing his commercial studio in New York in 1919, he moved to Hollywood, where he later became a successful cinematographer. It was on the trip west that Struss visited the Grand Canyon, encountering light, color, and spatial effects surpassing anything he had ever experienced. Immediately inspired, he produced landscape images that were unlike any of his previous work. This photograph's visual complexity and the rich tonal range provided by the palladium process justly recorded the grandeur of the view, providing an immense sense of space and distance. Carefully composed to take advantage of strong light and shadow patterns, he turned geological formations into bold, interlocking abstract forms.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60781098"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 347",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.151",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb Jr. in memory of Kenyon C. Bolton",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 153623,
"creators": [
{
"id": 970,
"description": "Karl F. Struss (American, 1886\u20131981)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Karl F. Struss American, 1886-1981\r\n\r\nBorn and raised in New York City, Karl Fischer Struss was an important early pictorialist and a cofounder of the Pictorial Photographers of America. He was also a member of the Photo-Secession, publishing his works in Camera Work (April 1912), and a photographer for publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar.\r\n\tA student of Clarence H. White, Struss was influenced by both White and Alvin Langdon Coburn. He developed his own style, however, an elegant synthesis of random qualities with formal composition. Struss experimented with various technical processes. He developed multiple platinum printing to enhance the depth of shadows and in 1909 designed the Struss Pictorial lens, which entered commercial production in 1915.\r\n\tShortly after the First World War, Struss moved to Hollywood, where he became a successful cinematographer. He worked first for Cecil B. De Mille and later freelanced for both independent and major studios until his retirement in 1970. Among his film credits are Ben Hur (1926), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), and the Chaplin classics The Great Dictator (1940) and Limelight (1952). In 1928 Struss received an Academy Award for his work on De Mille's film Sunrise. T.W.F.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1886",
"death_year": "1981",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1987-11-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1919,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1919",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:23.585000"
}
}