The painter and printmaker Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) exerted a transformative effect upon American art through his artwork and as a teacher in the early 20th century. Dow was an accomplished photographer and, unlike other painters of the day, saw the expressive possibilities of the medium. He met Alvin Langdon Coburn in 1903 at his Ipswich Summer School of Art where this portrait was made. Coburn became a pupil and traveled with Dow to the American West, initiating the important series of Western landscapes Coburn would execute several years later.

Coburn was a master of photographic print processes and frequently combined them to produce complex multi-hued images. His use of pigment and platinum in the print offered here enhances this study of his friend and mentor, creating an evocative portrait that captures Dow’s intelligence and keen eye.