[Christmas Card]

Angus McBean British, Welsh
1949
Not on view
A successful theatrical photographer in London, McBean crafted masterful portraits of actors in their signature roles as well as more fanciful fabrications, including the Christmas cards he sent to close friends. Nearly every card features the bearded, twinkly-eyed McBean as the star of a different whimsical scenario. Here, he and his partner, David Ball, encounter a colossal nude in a barren lunar landscape that owes much to the Surrealist geographies of Salvador Dalí and Giorgio di Chirico.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Christmas Card]
  • Artist: Angus McBean (British, Newbridge on Wye, Wales 1904–1990 Suffolk, England)
  • Date: 1949
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 29 x 36.4 cm (11 7/16 x 14 5/16 in.)
    Frame: 47 x 57.2 cm (18 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2011
  • Object Number: 2011.211
  • Rights and Reproduction: Angus McBean Photograph. © Houghton Library, Harvard University.
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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