id: 291386 accession number: 2016.476 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.476 updated: 2022-01-07 22:57:34.973000 Virginia Browning, 1936. Mike Disfarmer (American, 1884-1959). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 8.4 x 5.9 cm (3 5/16 x 2 5/16 in.); paper: 9.6 x 7 cm (3 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2016.476 title: Virginia Browning title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1936 creation date earliest: 1936 creation date latest: 1936 current location: creditline: Gift of George Stephanopoulos copyright: --- culture: America technique: vintage gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1900-1950 type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Mike Disfarmer (American, 1884-1959) - artist American photographer, 1884-1959 --- measurements: Image: 8.4 x 5.9 cm (3 5/16 x 2 5/16 in.); Paper: 9.6 x 7 cm (3 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on verso of mount: “DFGSZA175 DF1878D [crossed out] ZA” Stamped in black ink on verso of mount: “ORIGINAL/DISFARMER/PHOTOGRAPH” Written in pencil on verso of photograph: “Virginia Browing” Commercially imprinted throughout verso of paper: “VELOX” translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression opening date: 2017-08-13T04:00:00 From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Disfarmer may not have considered himself an artist, but the art world quickly awarded him that status when his images were published to great acclaim in the 1970s. From 1915 to the 1950s, he operated a portrait studio in the farming community of Heber Springs, Arkansas. By the 1930s, Disfarmer had departed from commercial portrait conventions for a minimalist aesthetic. He set subjects against one of two plain backdrops, one light with taped stripes and the other plain and dark. Instead of putting his subjects at ease, he was silent and sometimes photographed from behind a wall, waiting until they became themselves. His portraits reveal not just individuals but the social reality of life in small town America through times of war, feast, famine, the Depression, and war again. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES