Getty Museum
Middle-Class Couple, Cologne (Dr. A. Herbig, Jr., and His Wife) (84.XM.126.171)
Creator
August SanderGerman Photographer · 1876–1964
All works by this person →During military service, August Sander was an assistant in a photographic studio in Trier; he then spent the following two years working in various studios elsewhere. By 1904 he had opened his own studio in Linz, Austria, where he met with success. He moved to a suburb of Cologne in 1909 and soon began to photograph the rural farmers nearby. Around three years later Sander abandoned his urban stud
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1928
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- German
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Dr. A. Herbig, Jr., and his wife pose with their heads slightly tilted towards each other in this portrait by August Sander. While calmly gazing into the camera lens, their hands rest in their laps. Young, attractive, and well-dressed, the couple was among those chosen by Sander for inclusion in his comprehensive documentary project, "People of the Twentieth Century," which illustrated a select view of German society. This portrait depicts the dignity and composure associated with the middle-class, while revealing a sense of stability much sought after by Germans between World Wars I and II.
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