George Luks
Date1907
Artist
Gertrude Käsebier
(American photographer, 1852–1934)
Subject
George Luks
(American painter and graphic artist, 1867–1933)
MediumPlatinum print
Dimensionssheet: 8 1/8 × 6 1/4 in. (20.6 × 15.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978
Object number1978-589.16
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPHOTOGRAPH
Label TextWhen his painting, Man with Dyed Mustachios, was left out of the annual exhibition at the National Academy of Design in 1907, Luks' friends rallied around him. Henri complained in the press, and the dealer William Macbeth hung the work in his window during the run of the show. Boisterous and supremely confident, Luks was unsurprised by this rejection, stating: "I don't look on this thing from a personal point of view...I am trying to do things; if they don't understand them, I don't care any more than I do for a bottle of turpentine." His confident and confrontational persona emerges in Käsebier's portrait: he looks directly at the viewer with a slight smirk, his arms crossed and ready to challenge all comers.
