![Painter [Gottfried Brockmann]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTI0NiJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=2dd2095963a7665c)
Painter [Gottfried Brockmann]
August Sander
German, 1876–1964
1924
A gelatin-silver photograph by August Sander that presents a young painter posed beside his canvas, aiming to register the sitter’s professional identity as part of a broader typological study.
You’re immediately struck by the painter’s intense, slightly haunted gaze and the visual tension between his plain working smock and brushes and the flattened, stylized female figure painted on the canvas next to him.
Typical of Sander’s People of the 20th Century project, this 1924 portrait helped define a documentary, New Objectivity approach to photography that treated individuals as social types and visual evidence rather than intimate psychological studies.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
10 3/16 × 7 3/8" (25.8 × 18.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of the family of August Sander
Accession
472.2015.442
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
![Painter [Heinrich Hoerle]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIyOCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=ecf234f15663cf26)
![Painter [Ludwig E. Ronig]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTI0NSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=72617c0483e03a26)
![Painter [Heinrich Pilger]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzNyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=ee6fdfac7d10d9a3)
![Painter [Robert Seuffert]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTI0MiJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=11d37b28fba95ced)
![Painter [Richard Seewald]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzNSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=bf5e796cbca9bc3b)
![Painter and Graphic Artist [Ernst Krieg]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTI0NCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=12256c1728fc369f)
![Painter [Gerd Arntz]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzNCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=18e0ef2620ff4487)
![Painter [Franz M. Jansen]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzOCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=b852a80fcc2db18f)
![Photographer [August Sander]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyNDM4NCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=759b09bdd6ac0905)
![Painter [Stanislaw Kubicki]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIyOSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=365e1385ad191943)
![Painter [Willi Bongard]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzMyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=86d5b59d8b7b2ad0)
![Painter and Sculptor [Otto Freundlich]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIxOCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=1312f59f6d0d4e6f)
![Painter [Otto Dix]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTIzMSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=f0f69faa2e07f55c)
![Painter [Johannes Greferath]](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjMyOTI0MCJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=8050d7954144d7ef)