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[Rodin - Le Penseur]

Creator

American Photographer · 1879–1973

AuthorArtist

> The camera is a witness of objects, places, and events... The technical process simply serves as a vehicle of transcription and not as the art. > --Edward Steichen Edward Steichen became interested in photography at age sixteen. Influenced by the atmosphere of moonlight that came to characterize his early Pictorialist photographs, he also painted. Upon turning twenty-one, he left for Europe by w

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Date: 1902
Medium: Carbon print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Steichen visited and observed Rodin in his studio for an entire year before he made this portrait. The sculptor stands before two of his masterpieces: a statue of French author Victor Hugo and *The Thinker.* Steichen did not have enough room to capture the whole scene on one plate. He made two negatives, one of the artist with the Hugo sculpture and one of *The Thinker,* then combined them into one print. As Steichen noted, "It is probably more of a picture *to* Rodin than it is *of* Rodin, because after all, it associates the genius of the man with that expressed by his work."

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