The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

The Princess in the Backyard

c. 1930

Heinz Hajek-Halke

(German, 1898–1983)
Germany, 20th century
gelatin silver print, montage
Image: 23.3 x 17.5 cm (9 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.); Paper: 24.2 x 18 cm (9 1/2 x 7 1/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.47
Location: Not on view

Description

The intimate portrait of the woman in her lingerie superimposed over an apartment building courtyard strung with laundry suggests that behind closed doors, romance can exist amid the drudgery of everyday life. Hajek-Halke’s composite images, made by sandwiching together multiple negatives, illustrated ads and stories in popular magazines, but also appeared in art magazines. Possibly aimed at women, this image of a passive female presenting herself for viewing nonetheless suggests the power and dominance of the male gaze.
  • The artist's estate, Berlin
    (Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne)
    2007
    David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. cat. no. 31, p. 64
  • Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=The Princess in the Backyard|url=false|author=Heinz Hajek-Halke|year=c. 1930|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.47