[Mr. and Mrs. Hähner, Ückertseifen, Westerwald]

From the Getty Museum record

> August Sander frequently returned to the farming families he had documented earlier to make pictures of a funeral, the wedding of a daughter, or the confirmation of a grandchild. He went about all these assignments with the same diligent professionalism, recognizing that they were the bread and butter of a portrait photographer. He first recorded the Hähner family from Ückertseifen about 1910-14, depicting the parents and three children in their backyard (see [85.XM.258.370](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/53992/august-sander-untitled-hahner-family-uckertseifen-westerwald-german-1910-1914/)). It is a routine image, executed without great inspiration or passion. In 1926 Sander was called upon again, this time to create this portrait of the oldest Hähner son and his wife of two years. Sander also photographed the family's neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Schenk (see [85.XM.258.338](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/53960/august-sander-untitled-mr-and-mrs-schenk-uckertseifen-westerwald-german-1926/)), who wished to have their likenesses taken at the same site as the young couple. > > The difference in quality in these three photographs is striking. The two double portraits possess a formal beauty and freshness of vision that are absent from the earlier image. It is interesting to contemplate what inspired Sander to break away from his routine and to make pictures of such visual impact and consequence. The impulses that activate an artist's creativity often arise in mysterious and serendipitous ways. Maybe it was the beautiful diffused light that day that caught Sander's attention. Maybe it was the realization, heightened by his experience of World War I, that the people in front of his lens possessed a rare dignity and grace that was worthy of commemoration. Whatever it was, the portraits Sander created of the couples are stunning. > > Originally published in *August Sander*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum by Claudia Bohn-Spector (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), 28. ©2000, J. Paul Getty Trust.