Nautilus
1927, printed 1940s
Edward Weston
Artist, American, 1886 - 1958
Nautilus is one of Weston’s most iconic works, acclaimed for its dazzling luminosity and demonstrates his ability to transform a common object into a subject at once unrecognizable and strangely familiar. Cypress, Rock, Stone Crop (1930) and Dunes at Oceano (1936) are outstanding examples of the artist’s skill at distilling the complexity of nature into stunning visual spectacles that are both detailed and abstract. An example of his late work, White Sands, New Mexico (1941), reveals the interaction between the timeless elegance of the land and the rapidly changing clouds above.
Artwork overview
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Medium
gelatin silver print
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
image/sheet: 23.9 × 19 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/2 in.)
mount: 40.5 × 34.5 cm (15 15/16 × 13 9/16 in.) -
Accession Number
2021.47.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Edward Weston, Carmel, CA; Jean Kellogg [1910–1995], CA; her cousins Abraham and Regula Melden, 1950s; by descent to Private collection; (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 16 October 2007, lot 30); Stephen G. Stein, Washington, DC; gift to NGA, 2021.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
2015
Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts, Washington, DC, November 1, 2015–February 28, 2016
Inscriptions
signed by artist, lower right below image in graphite: EW 1927; on verso, signed by artist, upper center in graphite: Edward Weston / 1927--; top left: 25 / 1927