Untitled (portrait of a bearded man with glasses)

1970s

Untitled (portrait of a bearded man with glasses), 1970s. India, 20th century. Gelatin silver print, hand-painted; image: 23.6 x 17.8 cm (9 5/16 x 7 in.); paper: 23.6 x 17.8 cm (9 5/16 x 7 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 2018.15 After the introduction of photography in India in the mid-1800s, the distinction between photography and painting were sometimes blurred, with paintings made to look like photographs, and photographs colored to look like paintings. This portrait photograph shows the continuance of that tradition into the mid-1900s. The realistic coloring of the face is embedded amid the more painterly, abstracted elements of beard, garments, and flat background.