id:			291392
accession number:	2016.481
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.481
updated:		2023-03-22 03:05:12.756000

Three Seated Friends, c. 1940. Mike Disfarmer (American, 1884–1959). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 7.7 x 12.9 cm (3 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.); paper: 8.8 x 13.9 cm (3 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.); mounted: 28 x 21.4 cm (11 x 8 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2016.481

title:				Three Seated Friends
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1940
creation date earliest:		1935
creation date latest:		1945
current location:		
creditline:			Gift of George Stephanopoulos
copyright:			

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culture:	America
technique:	vintage gelatin silver print
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - American 1900-1950
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Mike Disfarmer (American, 1884–1959)  - artist
American photographer, 1884-1959
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measurements: Image: 7.7 x 12.9 cm (3 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.); Paper: 8.8 x 13.9 cm (3 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Mounted: 28 x 21.4 cm (11 x 8 7/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in pencil on verso on photograph: “13”
Written in pencil on verso of photograph: “SQ429”
Written in pencil on verso of mount: “DFGSZ5154”
Written in pencil on verso: “ZS”
Stamped in black ink on verso of mount: “ORIGINAL/DISFARMER/PHOTOGRAPH”
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression
	opening date:   2017-08-13T04:00:00
	<i>From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

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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.
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