The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 14, 2025

Grainy, out of focus black-and-white photograph with the shadow of a noose in the upper right corner and two hands with light skin tone reaching up towards the noose from the lower left. The fingertips are blurred by the dark, organic shape of a shadow that cuts between them and the noose.

Hands and Noose

1928
(Polish, 1897–1985)
Poland, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.8 x 13.2 cm (9 x 5 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.61
Location: not on view

Description

Hands figure prominently in many Surrealist images, especially portraits where they sometimes serve instead of the eye as a window to an individual’s soul. In this photograph, hands participate in a mysterious, grim shadow drama that threatens a dire end for someone by hanging. This photograph may have been part of a commissioned story about Les Halles, the former central wholesale grocery market of Paris.
  • 1999
    (Phillips, New York, NY, Oct. 5, 1999, no. 73, sold to David Raymond)
    1999-2007
    David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
    2007-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. Mentioned: p. 163; reproduced: p.166; Reproduced and mentioned: p. 216
  • Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=Hands and Noose|url=false|author=Germaine Krull|year=1928|access-date=14 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.61