News & Events 2007-2008

Photographs by Former Headmaster on Display at Carnegie Museum

Ann Breed on a Tricycle, 1910 Dr. Charles H. Breed Collection of Jack Lubiner

In addition to an exhibit of his works in the Romano Gallery at Blair scheduled for May 18 through June 8, 2008, photographs by Dr. Charles H. Breed, Blair Headmaster from 1927 to 1946, will be on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh beginning October 13.

“Picturing Childhood: Pictorialist Family Photography, c. 1890–1940,” will appear at the Carnegie Museum from October 13 through January 13, 2008, in the Scaife Works on Paper Gallery. The museum’s Web site notes, “Family portraiture, self-portraiture, and photography of domestic life from the late 19th century through the 1940s by three photographers with Pittsburgh ties are featured in this exhibition. Charles Hart Spencer (1852–1912), Charles H. Breed (1876–1950), and Walter Munhall (1901–1993) were all natives of the city. They captured a bygone era of middle- and upper-middle class family life through pictorialist portraiture, and they were part of a continuum of amateur photographers who helped to establish the traditions and conventions of the formal family photograph and the more casual family snapshot. Though Breed exhibited at the 1899 Pittsburgh Photographic Salon, he and Munhall are relatively unknown figures, and this exhibition provides an opportunity to showcase the strength of their work (see Breed photo from the Carnegie exhibit at right). Spencer was a socially prominent Pittsburgh resident and worked for Henry Clay Frick. His photographs were featured in the museum’s 1997 exhibition Pittsburgh Revealed: Photographs since 1850. The photographs by Munhall are part of Carnegie Museum of Art's collection, while the Breed and Spencer photographs come from collections in New York City (owned by Jack Lubiner) and Pittsburgh, respectively.

For more information on the Pittsburg exhibit of Dr. Breed’s work, please log on to http://www.cmoa.org/exhibitions/upcoming.asp

Posted10/9/07

> Read About More Fine Art Events

return to top