Loading...
Creator
Kallir, Otto, 1894-1978
Call number
AZ 25-7
Physical description
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Otto Kallir photographs, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library
Repository
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy
Access to materials
Request a research appointment: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein

The Otto Kallir photographs are black and white silver gelatin prints attributed to Otto Kallir. Kallir (1894-1978) was an Austrian-American art collector and historian who specialized in German Expressionism. Photographs depict various locations across the United States in the 1940s, notably St. Augustine, Florida.

Biographical/historical information

Otto Kallir (1894-1978) was an Austrian-American art collector and historian who specialized in German Expressionism. Founder of the original Neue Galerie in Vienna, Kallir championed the artist Egon Schiele and other Austrian modernist painters. After the Nazi Anschluss in 1938, Kallir and his family fled Austria to New York City, where he founded the Galerie St. Etienne the following year. Kallir was a significant figure in introducing Schiele and Gustav Klimt to the American art market. By the 1960s, Kallir was still very involved in the art world and used his influence to represent the painter Anna Mary Robertson ("Grandma") Moses.

Scope and arrangement

The Otto Kallir photographs contain black and white prints of various locations in the United States taken in the 1940s by Otto Kallir. While Kallir is primarily known for his work as an art historian and gallerist, this collection contains his own work as a photographer, shortly after he immigrated to the United States.

Most pictures are of the American South, including South Carolina and Florida. There are also some photographs of Washington, DC; Lake Placid, New York; New York City; and an unidentified forest fire. The majority of images are architectural or nature shots, and there is one series of portraits of a young South Carolinan boy in a boat.

Some photographs are signed by Kallir and indicate a submission to U.S. Camera Annual in 1943.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Acquisition details unknown.

Processing information

Processed by Emily P. Dunne in 2025.

Using the collection

Location

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
First Floor, Room 121

Access to materials

Request a research appointment: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein