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Artist/Maker
Ilse Bing
(American, born Germany, 1899 – 1998)
DateJune 8, 1937 (printed 1984)
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 3/8 × 10 3/16 in. (34 × 25.9 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 10 15/16 in. (35.6 × 27.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dr. Stephen Nicholas
Object number2015.11.2
Not on view
DescriptionIlse Bing attended the University of Frankfurt, originally intending to study mathematics and physics but subsequently pursuing a doctorate in art history. She began making photographs for her dissertation on the German architect Friedrich Gilly, which she curtailed in 1929 to embark on a career as an artist and a photojournalist. The following year, she moved to Paris, where she remained for the next decade. Bing eagerly embraced new technology in the field of photography, including the 35-millimeter Leica camera (released in 1926)—she became known as the “Queen of the Leica”—as well as new models of telephoto and wide-angle lenses, flashbulbs (introduced in 1927), and high-speed film. She also experimented in the darkroom with extreme cropping and enlarging sections of her negatives. The artist made many photographs of dancers in motion, including cancan dancers at the infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub. “Movement is so important,” the artist stated. “Nothing rests in our compositions, even if it seemingly rests, there is a dynamic of movement which you feel.” Her 1933 photographs of the ballet L’Errante (The Wanderer) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with sets by the Russian artist Pavel Tchelitchew, were technically virtuosic, having been shot with only available light. In 1937, Bing was commissioned by the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in East Sussex, England, to photograph the performances—one of the few assignments she accepted in the late 1930s. This print depicts a moment in the third act of Mozart’s comic opera Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), performed at the festival on June 8, 1937. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 76, illus.).
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 76, illus.).
Provenance
2015: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of Dr. Stephen Nicholas.
Published References
Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 178.
Signature
Signed and dated "ILSE / BING / 1937" at lower left composition in black pen; "ILSE / BING / 1937" on verso center in pencil.
Inscribed
"Figaro Fandango (Niddy Impekoven) / Glyndebourne" on verso at right center in pencil; "pr 1984" on verso at center in pencil; "IMBC-426.1 $3000" on verso at upper center in pencil.
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