The Barn

1922

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

The image displays a weathered wooden barn in the center, surrounded by grass. The sky above has cumulus clouds. The barn has a rustic wooden texture, with a tree to the right casting shadows. The color palette is sepia, with brown tones in the wood, muted greens in the grass, and pale sky. In the distance, there are more trees.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    palladium print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    image (visible): 19.1 × 24.1 cm (7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.)
    mat: 56.5 × 45.5 cm (22 1/4 × 17 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.611

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    20A

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    780

The image shows a man leaning his head on his hand, positioned with his face resting on his left hand. He has a mustache, thin-framed eyeglasses, and thick, greying hair that curls slightly at the edges. He is dressed in a formal jacket, a white shirt, and a black bow tie. The background is a soft, dark blur.

Alfred Stieglitz

Curious for more Alfred Stieglitz scholarship?

Discover over 1,000 artworks that the artist’s wife Georgia O’Keeffe termed his “Key Set” of prize photographs. Museum scholars have illuminated each work, his career, practices, and lifetime achievements.

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More About this Artwork

Article:  Modernist Barns and Modern Farmers

How Grant Wood, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Thomas Hart Benton depicted the humble structures—and how they mask the struggles of farmers today.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 780.

Inscriptions

by Doris Bry, on mount, lower left, in graphite: Treated by Steichen - 6/50; lower left verso, in graphite: 20A

Wikidata ID

Q64035293

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

“I have been battling with the barn the last few days, a damned difficult experiment” (Stieglitz to Paul Strand, 26 July 1922 [YCAL and CCP]).

Lifetime Exhibitions

A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

1923, New York (nos. 89–91, as The Barns, 1922)

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