Rosenberg Case, Moment of Execution, Washington, D.C.
An early member of the prestigious cooperative picture agency, Magnum, Elliott Erwitt is a master of pictorial humor and the telling human expression. In this photograph his camera shoves us toward a raucous crowd wildly cheering Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's execution for espionage, creating a chilling record of the blind patriotic zeal of 1950s middle-class America.
Artwork Details
- Title: Rosenberg Case, Moment of Execution, Washington, D.C.
- Artist: Elliott Erwitt (American, born France, 1928–2023)
- Date: 1953
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 26.1 x 35 cm (10 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1999
- Object Number: 1999.386.4
- Rights and Reproduction: © Elliot Erwitt
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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