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Gordon Craig

2 of 8 portraits by Edward Steichen

© The Estate of Edward Steichen/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021

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Gordon Craig

by Edward Steichen
gum platinum print, 1908
9 in. x 6 3/8 in. (231 mm x 162 mm)
Purchased, 1992
Primary Collection
NPG P508

On display in Room 24 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Photographer. Artist or producer of 8 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Actor, director, and designer (Edward Henry) Gordon Craig advocated for the use of large, neutral screens in theatre sets, which he believed could serve as blank slates for the pure emotional expressions of actors. Here Craig himself poses like a screen, a solid, formidable presence. The print itself is unique, made by hand by the photographer Steichen by coating an emulsion of photosensitive gum Arabic solution over a print made of platinum salts.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Photographs, 2018, p. 46 Read entry

    The son of actress Dame Ellen Terry, the actor, director and designer Edward Henry Gordon Craig (1872-1966) is perhaps best known for his Modernist writings on theatre. He advocated for the use of large, neutral screens in theatre sets, which he believed could serve as blank slates for the pure emotional expressions of actors. Here Craig himself poses like a screen - a solid, formidable presence. The print itself is unique, built up by hand by the photographer Edward Steichen (1879-1973) by coating an emulsion of photosensitive gum arabic solution over a print made of platinum salts.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 150

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1908back to top

Current affairs

Henry Asquith replaces Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Liberal leader and Prime Minister, with David Lloyd George taking control of the Exchequer. Asquith and Lloyd George embark on a bold programme of social reform, laying the foundations of the Welfare State, introducing government pensions this year and later a system of National Insurance.
The first aeroplane for the British army is built by the American, Samuel Cody.

Art and science

E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View is published, following the experiences of a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, in the repressed culture of Edwardian England.
The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first uses the term 'cubism' to refer to a landscape painting by Georges Braque.

International

King Carlos of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe, are killed by assassins from the Republican trying to provoke a revolution. Carlos I, unpopular because of his extravagant lifestyle and extramarital affairs, was succeeded by his younger son, Manuel, the last monarch of the Braganza dynasty.
Following the death of the Guangxu Emperor in China, his two year old nephew replaces him, becoming the the last Manchu emperor of China.

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