Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

0

  • Work on this object ended.

1916

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Photograph, Edith and Alvin Langdon Coburn, Grace and E. McKnight Kauffer

This is a Photograph. It was subject: E. McKnight Kauffer. It is dated 1916. Its medium is gelatin silver print. It is a part of the department.

In the summer of 1916, the Kauffers rented a cottage in the same village as their friends the Coburns. Alvin Langdon Coburn was a celebrated portrait photographer, but he and Kauffer spent the season experimenting with abstraction. Coburn created a series of “vortographs,” including the one shown below. These abstract works sparked a great deal of controversy among Coburn’s fellow photographers.

It is credited Simon Rendall.

Its dimensions are

H x W (approx.): 12.7 × 17.8 cm (5 × 7 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318805116/ |title=Photograph, Edith and Alvin Langdon Coburn, Grace and E. McKnight Kauffer |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>