Alvin Langdon Coburn

Marius de Zayas

ca. 1909–10 · Brush and black ink on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Despite Coburn's photographic talent and his role as one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession, he engendered many personal animosities within the Stieglitz circle. In particular, his fastidious appearance and his close relationship with his overbearing mother were mercilessly ridiculed. In this caricature, de Zayas accentuates the lines of Coburn's hair and beard. It is possible that this drawing, in which Coburn seems to step outside the frame of one of his own landscape photographs, was inspired by the photographer's one-man exhibition at 291 in January–February 1909.

Artist

Marius de Zayas

Date

ca. 1909–10

Medium

Brush and black ink on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949