Arnold Genthe Toned Silver Print of Garden Steps, 1933

Item Details

Arnold Genthe (German-American, 1869 – 1942)
Untitled (garden steps), 1933
Signed to the lower left

Arnold Genthe was a photographer who worked primarily as a portraitist but is known for his images of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Born in Berlin, Genthe earned a doctorate in philology and emigrated to San Francisco to work as a tutor. In his spare time, he would wander the streets of San Francisco taking pictures. He was especially drawn to the Chinatown neighborhood, and the pictures he took of this area are some of the few surviving images of it before parts were destroyed in the earthquake. His early photographs were published in a few local magazines, and he decided to open his own portrait photography studio. In 1906, his studio and cameras were destroyed in the earthquake, but Genthe borrowed a camera and set out the next day to document the tragedy, capturing some of the most memorable images of the event. He set up again and worked in Carmel and Japan, but eventually settled in New York in 1911. Here, he continued to work as portrait photographer including sitters such as Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, Greta Garbo, and Woodrow Wilson, but also did pioneering work in dance photography working with Isadora Duncan. His published several collections of his work, and it can be found in several notable institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Condition

- print mounted on backing; finish loss to the left corners of the frame.

Dimensions

- measures frame; image measures 12.5" W x 9.0" H.

Item #

ITMG523215