Aaron Siskind

mounted, in the photographer's original beveled painted-wood frame, the Buhl Collection label on the reverse, 1939

Gift of the photographer to a Chicago girlfriend, circa 1943

Private collection

Michael Shapiro Photographs, San Francisco

Ezra Mack, New York, 1993

Jan Howard, Interior Drama: Aaron Siskind's Photographs of the 1940s (Rhode Island School of Design, 2003), p. 30

This print is in Siskind's original presentation, framed in a heavy wood frame. This treatment gives the piece a solidly three-dimensional appearance. The surface of the print is likely varnished, and this has developed a craquelure that can be seen across the entire surface of the image when viewed in raking light. There is a small chip of emulsion missing near the upper left edge. While these condition issues are apparent to the attentive viewer, they are rather typical of early prints by Siskind, and they do not diminish the overall impact of this impressive early print. The print is mounted to stiff paperboard, and a sheet from a 1943 newspaper has been affixed to the reverse. The wood frame is deeply beveled. The interior of the bevel was painted an off-white, and the top edge a darker gray.
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