{ "data": { "id": 171601, "accession_number": "2014.383", "share_license_status": "Copyrighted", "tombstone": "Gypsy: On the Road (Curves Ahead), 1950. Ralph Steiner (American, 1899\u20131986). Gelatin silver print; image: 18 x 23.2 cm (7 1/16 x 9 1/8 in.); paper: 20 x 25.2 cm (7 7/8 x 9 15/16 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.); image with black margin: 18.6 x 23.8 cm (7 5/16 x 9 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Therese and Murray Weiss, 2014.383. \u00a9 Estate of Ralph Steiner", "current_location": null, "title": "Gypsy: On the Road (Curves Ahead)", "creation_date": "1950", "creation_date_earliest": 1950, "creation_date_latest": 1950, "artists_tags": [ "Jewish artists", "male" ], "culture": [ "America" ], "technique": "gelatin silver print", "support_materials": [], "department": "Photography", "collection": "PH - American 1900-1950", "type": "Photograph", "measurements": "Image: 18 x 23.2 cm (7 1/16 x 9 1/8 in.); Paper: 20 x 25.2 cm (7 7/8 x 9 15/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.); Image with black margin: 18.6 x 23.8 cm (7 5/16 x 9 3/8 in.)", "dimensions": { "image": { "height": 0.18, "height_inch": 7, "height_inch_fraction": 0.0625, "width": 0.232, "width_inch": 9, "width_inch_fraction": 0.125 }, "paper": { "height": 0.2, "height_inch": 7, "height_inch_fraction": 0.875, "width": 0.252, "width_inch": 9, "width_inch_fraction": 0.9375 }, "matted": { "height": 0.406, "height_inch": 16, "height_inch_fraction": 0.0, "width": 0.508, "width_inch": 20, "width_inch_fraction": 0.0 }, "image with black margin": { "height": 0.186, "height_inch": 7, "height_inch_fraction": 0.3125, "width": 0.238, "width_inch": 9, "width_inch_fraction": 0.375 } }, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": "\u00a9 Estate of Ralph Steiner", "inscriptions": [ { "inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"Ralph Steiner (signed) 1950/1951\"", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null } ], "exhibitions": { "current": [ { "id": 393871, "title": "A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920\u20131950", "description": "A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920\u20131950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-November 7, 2021).", "opening_date": "2021-07-10T04:00:00" } ], "legacy": [] }, "provenance": [ { "description": "Ralph Steiner to Therese and Murray Weiss, 1975 - 1986", "citations": [], "footnotes": [], "date": null, "sortorder": null } ], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": null, "early_education_description": null, "artlens_description": null, "description": "With the advent of the Great Depression, the theaters around Times Square gained new neighbors: burlesque houses featuring stripteases. At the very top of that profession was Gypsy Rose Lee, whose wit and creativity catapulted her into film, theater, and eventually television. Lee commissioned this publicity photo from her friend Ralph Steiner for a 1950 tour; the image was probably a collaboration between the two. The fur, Rolls Royce, and Louis Vuitton luggage attest to Lee\u2019s professional and financial success and elevated tastes. In the bottom photograph, Lee\u2019s fame and name are exploited to promote a less well known performer, Marie Cord.", "external_resources": { "wikidata": [ "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80082243" ], "internet_archive": [] }, "citations": [], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2014.383", "images": {}, "alternate_images": [], "creditline": "Gift of Therese and Murray Weiss", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 171601, "creators": [ { "id": 944, "description": "Ralph Steiner (American, 1899\u20131986)", "extent": null, "qualifier": null, "role": "artist", "biography": "Ralph Steiner American, 1899-1986 Ralph Steiner (born in Cleveland) was a modernist photographer and filmmaker known for his clear, sharply focused images of everyday America. Having developed an early interest in photography, Steiner spent the year following graduation from Dartmouth College studying at the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York (1921-22). He worked as a plate engraver at the Manhattan Photogravure Company, then undertook a career as a magazine and advertising photographer. Deeply impressed by the technical quality of Paul Strand's pictures, Steiner spent the summer and early fall of 1929 improving his own technical skills. That same year he also began experimenting with filmmaking, producing the avant-garde film H2O. During the 1930s he continued to make films, producing Surf and Seaweed, Mechanical Principles, and Pie in the Sky. In 1935 Steiner joined Strand as a cameraman on Pare Lorentz's documentary film, The Plow that Broke the Plains, and several years later collaborated with photographer Willard Van Dyke on The City, a documentary shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the early 1940s Steiner moved to Hollywood, where he worked for mgm and rko. Upon his return to New York later in the decade, he resumed his career as a commercial photographer. During the 1960s he was able to spend more time doing his own work, producing both photographs and films. His autobiography, A Point of View (1978), was followed by a book of his cloud photographs, In Pursuit of Clouds (1985). M.M.", "name_in_original_language": null, "birth_year": "1899", "death_year": "1986", "use_in_caption": true, "include_extent": false, "weight": 1 } ], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "2014-08-19T00:00:00", "sortable_date": 1950, "date_added_to_oa": null, "date_text": "1950", "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 06:53:29.180000" } }