A Winter's Sunrise (before 1891, published 1895): Art, History and Details

A Winter's Sunrise (before 1891, published 1895) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Peter Henry Emerson (British, 1856–1936).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Marsh Leaves, in which this image appears, was Emerson’s last book of photographs. Published in 1895, it is generally considered his best and most influential body of work. He had moved from naturalism to a graphic style so radical that it sometimes verged on abstraction. This looser, more expressionistic, and emotional late style helped lay the groundwork for Pictorialist photography, which dominated fine art photography in the early 20th century.

Object facts

• Title: A Winter's Sunrise
• Date: before 1891, published 1895
• Creator attribution: Peter Henry Emerson (British, 1856–1936)
• Culture: England
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: photogravure
• Dimensions: Image: 12.8 x 6.9 cm (5 1/16 x 2 11/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2025.17

A detail from the museum

In 1886, the year after completing medical school, Peter Henry Emerson became a full-time photographer and published his first book of photographs.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Roger J. Lerch in Memory of Carl J. Lerch and Winifred J. Lerch Endowment

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.