10 х 8 in. cm.
Ernest Hemingway, 1957. Gelatin silver print, image size is 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
Albert Einstein, 1948. Gelatin silver print, image size is 7.75 x 7.75 inches (19.7 x 19.7 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
Albert Schweitzer, 1954. Gelatin silver print, image size is 7.5 x 5.5 inches (19.1 x 14 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956. Gelatin silver print, image size is 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
Lord Laurence Olivier, 1954. Gelatin silver print, image size is 11 x 8 inches (27.9 x 20.3 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
George Bernard Shaw, 1943. Gelatin silver print, image size is 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). Stamped with official "Credit Karsh, Ottawa" stamp on verso, title inscribed in pencil on verso.
Born in Armenia in 1908, Yousuf Karsh and his family fled the country when he was fourteen to escape the Armenian Genocide. Two years after their escape to Syria, Karsh’s family sent him to Quebec to live with his uncle. It was then that Karsh was introduced to photography, assisting his uncle, George Nakash, in his studio. After a four year apprenticeship in Boston with portrait photographer John Garo, Karsh returned to Canada and established his own studio in Ottawa at the Chateau Laurier Hotel. The studio’s proximity to Canada’s seat of government led to the discovery of Karsh’s talents by Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King. King introduced Karsh to numerous visiting dignitaries for whom Karsh took portraits. From then on, the word about Karsh’s striking portraits began to spread not only to other political figures, but to various celebrities and cultural figures as well. During his career, Karsh produced portraits for Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, JFK, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ernest Hemingway, among others.
Today, Yousuf Karsh's work is housed in the permanent collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, , George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the National Portrait Gallery in London and many others.