WASHINGTON, DC.- Rare platinum photographs that played a pivotal role in establishing photography as a fine art will be presented at the National Gallery of Art. On view in the West Building from October 5, 2014 through January 4, 2015, A Subtle Beauty: Platinum Photographs from the Collection will include two dozen works from the Gallery's renowned collection of photographs. Presented in conjunction with a symposium organized by the National Gallery of Art and sponsored by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, this exhibition features compelling prints by Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), Edward Steichen (1879–1973), Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934), and other prominent pictorialist photographers.

"Photographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were captivated by the lush appearance and rich atmospheric effects they were able to create through the platinum print process," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "With their extraordinary tonal range—capable of capturing the deepest blacks, warmest sepias, and creamiest of whites—platinum prints quickly became the preferred process of the era."

Exhibition Highlights
Featuring 24 outstanding photographs from the 1880s to the 1920s, this exhibition reveals the artistic qualities and subtle nuances of the platinum process. Major artists such as Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936), Frederick H. Evans (1853-1943), Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882–1966), and Clarence H. White (1871–1925), revered platinum prints for their permanence, delicate image quality, and surface textures that could range from a velvety matte to a lustrous sheen.

Focused on the aesthetic and technical aspects of platinum photographs, highlights include Stieglitz's From the Back-Window—291 (1915), an exceptional print with neutral gray and black tones capturing the diffuse glow of lights in the buildings behind the artist's galleries at 291 Fifth Avenue; Evans' superb York Minster, North Transept: "In Sure and Certain Hope" (1902), an affective work whose subject is light more than architecture; and Steichen's evocative Rodin (1907), combining platinum with gum dichromate to create a painterly, multilayered portrait.

The curator for the exhibition is Andrea Nelson, assistant curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.