Eleanor

Artist Harry Callahan (American, 1912-1999)

Date1948 negative, (printed before 1970)

DimensionsImage: 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 in. (19.3 x 24.4 cm);
Mount: 14 1/2 x 14 9/16 in. (36.9 x 37 cm)

MediumGelatin-silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1987.215

Not on View

Label TextEleanor Gelatin silver print, 1948 (printed before 1970) Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1987.215 Harry Callahan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He studied engineering at Michigan State College and worked for Chrysler Motor Auto Parts Corporation in Detroit from 1934 to 1944. He became involved with photography through curiosity in 1938. A 1941 exhibition and lecture on the photography of Ansel Adams helped to convince Callahan to pursue his photographic passion. Eleanor, Callahan’s wife, became the primary source of inspiration for his creative work from the mid-1940s to the early 60s. His photographs of her are intimate accounts of his feelings toward his wife and a celebration of femininity. The artist/historian James Alinder wrote: “Eleanor does not conform to any stereotype of female beauty. She is a real woman who ages, becomes a mother, and is always beautiful….There is a warm human energy that radiates from these images. Through them we see a couple expressing the quiet intensity of their harmonious and lasting relationship… .” In this photograph Callahan exploits two sources of illumination that innocently and respectfully define the outline of Eleanor’s body.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.