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Two Parlormaids
On View
Not on view
Object number1992/3.34

Two Parlormaids

Artist (British, 1905-1983)
Date1950
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsmat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
sheet: 16 × 12 in. (40.6 × 30.5 cm)
image: 13 1/2 × 11 3/4 in. (34.3 × 29.8 cm)
Credit LinePermanent Collection Fund
Exhibition History"Master Photographs from the Permanent Collection," KIA (Sept. 7 - Oct. 24, 1993). "Selections from the Permanent Collection," KIA (Mar. - Apr. 1997). "The Twentieth Century in Focus: Photographs from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Jan. 25 - Mar. 25, 2002). "The Woman as Subject: Selections from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (June 13 - Sept. 8, 2003). "The Thing Itself: Daguerreotype to Digital," Dennos Museum Center (Dec. 6, 2003 - Mar. 7, 2004). "At Work and Play," KIA Long Gallery (Apr. 1 - July 22, 2005). "Framing Moments: Photography from KIA's Permanent Collection," KIA (Feb. 6 - May 16, 2021) Label TextBill Brandt used servants employed by his uncle to stage this depiction of class division in British society. It is among his most famous images. First published in his book, The English at Home (1936), Brandt often asked Pratt, the older woman who really was a parlor maid, to pose in a variety of the chores that constituted her job as the head house servant. The younger woman under Pratt’s supervision was officially known as the under parlor maid. Pictures such as this brought Brandt great success. They were published widely in the major British and French illustrated magazines of the time. After World War II, Brandt shifted his focus from social documentation to abstract and surreal photography. The female nude became one of his enduring subjects. He is considered one of the most accomplished and influential photographers of the twentieth century. [Framing Moments Exhibition, 2021]