The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Virginia Browning
1936
(American, 1884–1959)
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.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2016.476
Location: not on view
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.- From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
- {{cite web|title=Virginia Browning|url=false|author=Mike Disfarmer|year=1936|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2016.476