The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 30, 2026

A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph depicts a close-up of Ilse Bing, a person with light skin tone tilted downward and toward our right. She wears thick, black, round-rimmed glasses over closed eyes. Wisps of dark hair fall across her forehead. Her face is speckled with freckles, and her dark-toned lips are closed. The composition tightly crops the top of her head and chin.

Ringl with Glasses

1929, printed 1985

ringl + pit

(German)

Ellen Auerbach

(American, 1906–2004)
Germany
gelatin silver print
Image: 17.4 x 27 cm (6 7/8 x 10 5/8 in.); Mounted: 48 x 38 cm (18 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
Gift of Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne, in memory of Gerd Sander 2024.23.12
© ringl+pit
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This portrait of Grete Stern was taken by her friend and business partner Ellen Auerbach.

Description

Together they created an advertising photography studio titled with their childhood nicknames. The extreme close-up and unusual angle of the head here are characteristic practices of modernist photography in the 1920s and 1930s. The fact that the subject of the portrait does not look at us frustrates our desire to make a connection while suggesting a photograph’s limitations in probing the soul of a sitter.
  • {{cite web|title=ringl with Glasses|url=false|author=ringl + pit, Ellen Auerbach|year=1929, printed 1985|access-date=30 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.23.12