The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 20, 2025
Self-Portrait
1945
(American, 1899–1998)
Image: 33.9 x 26.5 cm (13 3/8 x 10 7/16 in.); Mounted: 50.7 x 40.5 cm (19 15/16 x 15 15/16 in.); Paper: 33.9 x 26.5 cm (13 3/8 x 10 7/16 in.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2012.395
© Estate of Ilse Bing
Location: Not on view
Description
Living in New York provoked a stylistic shift in Ilse Bing’s work. The city’s “clear and differentiating light, which [made her] see things in sharp detail,” inspired brighter and larger prints. Her compositions separated the forms from each other. Bing attributed these changes to a sense of isolation, which is mirrored in these self-portraits. Living in New York, she said, was like being “in a vacuum . . . looking out on the world as if from inside a space capsule.”- Ilse Bing: Queen of the Leica. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-October 11, 2020).
- {{cite web|title=Self-Portrait|url=false|author=Ilse Bing|year=1945|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.395