Skip to main content
Edith, Christmas Morning, Danville, Virginia
Edith, Christmas Morning, Danville, Virginia
Edith, Christmas Morning, Danville, Virginia

Edith, Christmas Morning, Danville, Virginia

Artist (American, born 1941)
Date1971 (printed circa 1973)
Mediumgelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Support: 13 1/2 × 16 1/2 in. (34.3 × 41.9 cm)
Mat: 16 1/2 × 18 in. (41.9 × 45.7 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of anonymous donor, 2013
Object number2013.40.4
DescriptionWoman in brightly lit doorway at rear of composition, with her hands on her hips, surveying a living room with a Christmas tree at rear left and a floor covered with torn wrapping paper and other debris from opening gifts on Christmas morning. A bare lightbulb hangs down in the center of the composition.
Text Entries
After marrying in 1964, Emmet Gowin began exploring the subject of family life with his camera. Here, his wife Edith surveys the aftermath of Christmas morning, a common scene that is dramatized by the chaos of wrapping paper and the artist’s use of a special lens to create a peep-hole effect.
The photograph arrived to the museum framed. It was decided that the frame would be discarded and the piece was removed at the time of processing and conditioning. The backing board used on the frame did include inscription information. This inscription was cut away from the backing board and is now housed in the Accession file. The inscription information can be found in the Marks field on the Front Card.
On View
Not on view
Untitled (Christmas Card)
Kenneth Miller Adams
1964
Christmas Tree
Gustave Baumann
mid 20th Century
Christmas Greeting (from the The HGB Memorial Portfolios)
Helen Greene Blumenschein
1950-1989 (printed September 1994)
Christmas Eve at Taos Pueblo (from the The HGB Memorial Portfolios)
Helen Greene Blumenschein
1950-1989 (printed October, November 1994)
Untitled
Gustave Baumann
1906 - 1916
Untitled
Laurie Campbell
1995
Untitled
Gerald Cassidy
1925
Untitled
Gustave Baumann
1906 - 1916