Gordon Craig
- Artist: Edward Steichen
- Date: 1913
- Medium: photogravure
- Dimensions: 7 7/8 in. x 6 3/8 in. (200 mm x 162 mm)
- Portrays: (Edward Henry) Gordon Craig
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
Before you is a small photogravure by Edward Steichen from 1913. The portrait shows (Edward Henry) Gordon Craig turning in an instant of dramatic motion, framed by a shaft of light that highlights his face and hands. The image has the crisp detail typical of a gravure, with subtle shading that gives depth to his clothing and the background.
Steichen was one of the great photographers of the early‑twentieth‑century; he later headed photography at MoMA in New York. Craig himself was a theatre director and designer who lived in London and worked with Eleonora Duse and Stanislavsky. The portrait first appeared in Alfred Stieglitz's *Camera Work*, July 1913.
See it in person
Gordon Craig is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
