The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Composition with Crow and Chair
c. 1939
(American, 1908–1958)
Image: 34.3 x 25.6 cm (13 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1995.238
Location: not on view
Description
Leslie Gill was one of the most influential still-life photographers of the early 20th century, frequently publishing in House Beautiful and Harper’s Bazaar. Composition with Crow and Chair exemplifies Gill’s distinctive style, which was characterized by a classical sense of design, meticulous composition, and delicate sensitivity for light, texture, and balance. The subject of the photograph seems to be the play of light over differing materials, including satin, glass, mirror, wood, and ceramic. Gill’s image suffuses this modern composition with a sense of menace by including a disembodied doll’s head and a stuffed crow. A once-living creature, the crow becomes an inanimate object and subject for Gill’s still life—a bird that has been both literally and symbolically "stilled" by man and his camera.- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 185
- Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 3, 2004).Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 7/24/04 - 11/3/04. "Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art". No exhibition catalogue.
- {{cite web|title=Composition with Crow and Chair|url=false|author=Leslie Gill|year=c. 1939|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.238