Eye of Photography

Jacob Loewentheil: Matthew Morrocco & Marcel Sternberger: Forging Portraiture

“In Sternberger’s work, we imagine the great men and women of history as real people, with thoughts and feelings. Less easy, but just as important is to imagine the artist behind the camera, as Morrocco forces us to do."

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Photobook Journal

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Jacob Loewentheil – The Psychological Portrait: Marcel Sternberger’s Revelations in Photography

“Once in a while one makes a truly surprising discovery: the work of Marcel Sternberger certainly fits that category. Iconic portraits of 20th century luminaries, depictions that were relatively unknown for many decades, have now been unearthed from his archive, thanks to the work of Jacob and Stephan Loewentheil of New York City.”

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Photobook Journal

2020 Photo l.a.

“Another discovery was the work of Marcel Sternberger, a 20th century photographer who had a psychological approach to portraiture and knew some of the most prominent members of society. The collection of iconic portraits and important intellectual contributions was recently discovered and is being curated by Jacob Loewentheil.”

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ArtFix Daily

A Rediscovered Trove of Renowned Faces From The Marcel Sternberger Collection on View at The Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College

"When 30-year-old Jacob Loewentheil rediscovered the photographic archive of Marcel Sternberger, which included thousands of images, he was so intrigued by the portraits that he embarked on a five-year journey that culminated in the publication of a book and a series of exhibitions, the second one -- The Photographs of Marcel Sternberger: Portraits of the 20th Century -- opening at The Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College, 135 East 22nd Street, on October 6 and running through November 3, 2017."

Marcel Sternberger Photograph Joins Permanent Collection of the Polk Museum of Art

We are pleased to share that the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, FL has announced the donation of a Marcel Sternberger photograph in honor of the late Anne Tucker, a loyal patron and founding member of the museum. Robert and Malena Puterbaugh donated Sternberger's photograph of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera with their dog, which was taken in Mexico City in 1952. The photograph will join the museum's Permanent Collection and will be on view from September 30 to January 7.

Artnet News

See Revealing Portraits of Frida Kahlo and Einstein From a Forgotten Master Photographer

"Marcel Sternberger photographed the likes of Sigmund Freud, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Albert Einstein, and George Bernard Shaw. His portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the basis for the president’s likeness on the dime. And yet, his name was forgotten, until a young photography and antiquarian book dealer named Jacob Loewentheil discovered his photographs, abandoned in storage."
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Artfix Daily

Rare Portraits of 20th Century Luminaries By Renowned Photographer Marcel Sternberger Debut in New York March 29-April 15 at PRPH Books

"The exhibit is a preview of a larger show to be held at Baruch College’s Mishkin Gallery in early October of 2017. “A leading portrait photographer of his generation” (New York Review of Books), Dr. Sternberger’s many other subjects being exhibited included giants of the day such as Sigmund Freud, Frida Kahlo, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, George Bernard Shaw, and the Shah of Iran."
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i Photo Central

Sternberger's Pathognomicism

"This brilliant monograph by art scholar Jacob Loewentheil is a welcome appreciation and analysis of the work of the great portrait photographer Marcel Sternberger, who died in a 1956 car crash while on his way to visit his legendary friends (and his camera's great subjects) Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Indeed, many of Sternberger's portraits have become part of our global sensibility-the famed, darkly backgrounded images of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Kahlo and Rivera, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and countless other European, Asian and American luminaries, who literally shaped their times."
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The New York Review of Books

Photographing the Psyche

"What can a photograph tell us about the interior life of its subject? During photography’s early days in the mid-nineteenth century, the photographic portrait was often expected to convey a certain neutrality. Long exposure times required stillness, while the prevalent study of physiognomy, in which facial features were believed to reveal character traits, made some think that visible emotion would undermine the accuracy of a portrait’s static likeness."
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The New York Times

Capturing the Love, and Psyches, of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

“While Sternberger generally developed good relations with all of his sitters and went on to correspond with some of the most famous personalities of the day, a special bond developed with Frida and Diego,” said Jacob Loewentheil, author of “The Psychological Portrait,” a new monograph published by Rizzoli with 206 photographs of notable figures, including Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and George Bernard Shaw. “The Sternbergers spent approximately the next five years traveling from New York, where they lived, to la Casa Azul.”
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New York Journal of Books

Marcel Sternberger: The Psychological Portrait

"The Psychological Portrait is a remarkable book in its revelatory power to show us a side of personalities such as Einstein, Freud, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera that are rarely seen. It also demonstrates that Sternberger was on the cutting edge of photography by using the insights of psychology to achieve his perceptive portrayals. Had Sternberger not died in a car accident in 1956 at 57 years of age it is easy to imagine how astoundingly influential his work would have been to a new generation of photographers."
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American Photo

See Marcel Sternberger's Psychological Portraits of Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo and More

"Marcel Sternberger may be one of the most prolific portrait photographers that you’ve never heard of. He photographed ordinary people as well as the most famous luminaries of the early 20th century—from the Belgian royal family to author George Bernard Shaw. The image of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that appears on the dime was even adapted from one of his portraits."
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rag & bone

Marcel Sternberger: The Psychological Portrait

"This month, noteworthy publishing house Rizzoli brings us The Psychological Portrait: Marcel Sternberger’s Revelations in Photography.
A pioneer in his medium, Sternberger aimed to expand the scope of traditional portrait photography and in doing so, bridge the realms of art, psychology and history. The “psychological portrait,” as it was deemed, cut through physical appearance offering a glimpse into a subject's often sequestered personality. Through Sternberger’s images Franklin D. Roosevelt could be imagined reflective, Albert Einstein deep in thought or Diego Rivera playful and lighthearted."
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because

Because Loves: The Psychological Portrait

"Do you have a go-to flattering pose you strike when an iPhone rears its camera lens? This is one of many human proclivities that photographer Dr Marcel Sternberger masterfully maneuvered in his sitters during his career in portraiture, in his search for authenticity, revelation and spontaneity. We love Jacob Lowentheil’s new retrospective on his work, The Psychological Portrait, which chronicles images of his (many a famous) sitters that deftly penetrate their public-facing veneer."
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The Cut

See Intimate Portraits of 20th-Century Icons

"Photographer Marcel Sternberger aimed to capture unguarded moments: Frida Kahlo's elegance, tenderness between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and Diego Rivera's silly faces.
His images of some of the early-20th-century's biggest names are displayed in The Psychological Portrait: Marcel Sternberger's Revelations in Photography, by Jacob Loewentheil, out April 19 from Rizzoli."
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