The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 31, 2026

A vertically oriented platinum print in soft shades of gray looks toward three potted plants resting on a windowsill. On our left, a tall, spindly plant reaches toward the top of a multi-paned window. In the center sits a shorter, leafy plant, while another with long, pointed leaves fans out on our right. Bright light floods the scene, blurring the background into a grainy, luminous texture.

Untitled (Potted Plants on a Windowsill)

1909

Karl F. Struss

(American, 1886–1981)
America
platinum print
Image: 11.5 x 9.4 cm (4 1/2 x 3 11/16 in.); Paper: 11.5 x 9.4 cm (4 1/2 x 3 11/16 in.); Mounted: 12.6 x 10.6 cm (4 15/16 x 4 3/16 in.)
Gift in Memory of Tom Hinson, from Paul Hertzmann and Susan Herzig, Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro, and Lauren and Michael Lee 2025.194
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Pictorialism was the first international movement to insist that photographs could be works of fine art.

Description

The intimate scale of this vintage platinum print—4 ½ x 3 ¾ inches—is the result of the artist’s choice of camera and printing process. Platinum prints were prized by the Pictorialist photographers at the beginning of the twentieth century for their delicate tonalities and the control they afforded the artist. These prints are made in direct contact with, and thus are the same size as, the negative.
  • (Christie’s, New York, NY, 19th and 20th Century Photographs, November 11, 1986, sale 6234, lot 395, sold to?)
    (Sotheby’s, New York, NY, Photographs, 2003, sale 7925, lot 136, sold to Lee Gallery, Charles Isaacs Photographs Inc., and Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
    Paul Hertzmann and Susan Herzig, Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro, and Lauren and Michael Lee, donated to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003-September 8, 2025
    September 8, 2025-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Window Dressing. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY (May 6–June 30, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (Potted Plants on a Windowsill)|url=false|author=Karl F. Struss|year=1909|access-date=31 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.194