Fragment from Balustrade of the Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens
William James Stillman American
Not on view
Stillman had a multifaceted career as a painter, photographer, art critic, journalist, diplomat, and amateur archeologist. Following a brief period as a landscape painter with ties to the Pre-Raphaelites, he became the founding editor of the art journal The Crayon and spent much of his time abroad, working as a correspondent for London and New York newspapers. In 1859 he took up photography and put his new skills to use while serving as American consul to Rome and Crete. His most accomplished photographs are his sensitive, detailed studies of the Acropolis in Athens, which he made in 1869 and again in 1882. This luminous close-up of a winged Victory reaching down to fasten her sandal was published in Stillman’s book, On the Track of Ulysses (1888), an account of his archaeological
adventures around the Mediterranean.
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