Passing/Posing (Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple)
Object Label
George Brainerd, a lifelong Brooklynite, produced a total of 2,500 photographs before his early death at age 42 in 1887. The majority of these were images of Brooklyn, a vast documentation of the urban landscape—dams and mills, bridges and train depots, engine houses and pumping stations—but also, especially after 1880, images of city dwellers and street scenes. This photograph, from about 1885, shows Brainerd’s attention to composition and captures the leisurely atmosphere at Coney Island, the playful tug-of-war between boy and dog contrasting with the more languid manner of the surrounding bathers.
Independently wealthy and the Deputy Water Purveyor for the City of Brooklyn, Brainerd was an advanced amateur photographer adept at exploring new techniques. His legacy remains in the Brooklyn Museum; about 1,900 of his glass plate negatives make up a large portion of the Museum’s huge collection of Brooklyn- and New York−themed glass plate negatives. Images such as this one were later printed from those negatives, which are often exceptionally detailed and subtle in tone.
Caption
Kehinde Wiley American, born 1977. Passing/Posing (Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple), 2003. Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 96 x 60 x 1 1/2 in. (243.8 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Mary Smith Dorward Fund and Healy Purchase Fund B, 2003.90.2. © artist or artist's estate
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Passing/Posing (Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple)
Date
2003
Medium
Oil on canvas mounted on panel
Classification
Dimensions
96 x 60 x 1 1/2 in. (243.8 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm)
Credit Line
Mary Smith Dorward Fund and Healy Purchase Fund B
Accession Number
2003.90.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
Is this an original painting or a copy?
It is an original painting and it directly references works from the history of art. Wiley poses his models in the same gestures from the history of art. I am curious, what about this work looked like it might be a copy?Firstly, there's no plaque with name of artist and the color doesn't look like paint. What kind of paint does the artist use?Wiley uses oil paint in his work and paints in a manner that his brushstrokes are not so visible (especially from a distance). The object label with artist, title, and information is located near the entrance to that gallery (to the right of the video installation).Who is depicted here?
For that piece, Kehinde Wiley did not actually give us the name of the sitter. For many of his works, Wiley asks men that he meets on the street to pose for his work (although he has admitted to sometimes using models). We don't know for this piece if this is one of the men he met on the street or if this is a model.Wiley's process of painting these portraits is very interesting. He often collaborates with the men he paints, letting them chose their poses from art history books and letting them pose in their favorite clothes. This pose is based on a painting titled "Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes the Presentation of Jesus on the Temple."
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