Photographic portrait of Albert Einstein by Walter Benington (1921).
Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein! The image above is a large silver gelatin print taken in June of 1921 (Portrait Sold).
Einstein had just made an official visit to the United States, where he lectured at Princeton and Columbia and visited the White House. Returning to Europe he stopped first in London as the guest of the politician and philosopher Viscount Haldane, and delivered an important lecture on relativity at King’s College London. Haldane also arranged a session with the prominent portraitist Walter Benington, who was known for his portraits of intellectuals and artists, and was then working for the firm Elliott & Fry as a freelancer.
“Einstein’s visit captured the public imagination and The Sphere (18 June 1921) reproduced Benington’s informal double portrait of Einstein and Haldane as its front cover with an inset of Einstein taken at the same sitting” (NPG website). A copy of this important image is now held at the National Portrait Gallery. Our print of this photograph was taken from the original negative, and was likely intended for exhibition. It measures nearly a foot in height, and original prints of Einstein in this size are rare.
Click here to see our other Einstein-related stock.
