Archery: Photographs and Drawings

Today's theme is a mix of photos and drawings all having to do with archery.

We start with a gauzy 1914 photo by Frank Eugene (Smith or Schmidt) 

that doesn't quite make sense when one looks at it closely.

 

Early 20th Century German Art, Part 1 - the Photos of Frank Eugene Smith

Frank Eugene Smith (1865-1936) was born in New York to German immigrant parents 

who Anglicized their name from Schmidt to Smith.  Smith was successful as both a painter and a photographer, but he is best known for his photos, which he artfully manipulated to produce interesting effects.  Although he had several successful exhibitions of his work 

in New York,he spent most of his working career in Germany and became 

both a professor and a German citizen early in World War I.

Smith called this photo simply "Male Nude with Fruit," 

but several generations later a painter copied and titled it "Brennus the Gaul."

Frank Eugene Smith sometimes published his work with only 

his middle name, as in this untitled work.

In "Man with Lyre" we see a blurry, dreamlike arcadian scene 

with a female apparition in the right background.

"The Archer" shows the ethereal effect of Smith's technique of acid etching some of his photographic plates.  He was also known to paint on them, as in the following photo.

Smith's embellishments of the photo plate to produce the final product in this piece 

seem to actually enhance the natural lines of the model's body