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Beaufort, South Carolina

Robert Frank American, born Switzerland
1955
Not on view
This study of a roadside scene in South Carolina depicts an African American woman sitting sideways on a kitchen chair, outside, in a flowery field at sunset. The day's work is done and the cool of night is about to provide some needed comfort. It is a superb example of Frank’s beat-driven, two year (1955-57), Guggenheim-funded road trip from New York to California and back again. Frank included this deeply moody print of one of his most famous photographs made in the segregated American south in his first large showing of work from The Americans at The Museum of Modern Art in 1962. It recalls what Jack Kerouac said of Frank whom he believed had "sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Beaufort, South Carolina
  • Artist: Robert Frank (American (born Switzerland), Zurich 1924–2019 Inverness, Nova Scotia)
  • Date: 1955
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 10 13/16 × 16 7/16 in. (27.5 × 41.8 cm)
    Sheet: 10 13/16 × 16 7/16 in. (27.5 × 41.8 cm)
    Mount: 10 13/16 × 16 7/16 in. (27.5 × 41.8 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.555
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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