Yousuf Karsh’s portrait of Winston Churchill used on the British ￡5 note is the most famous of his many definitive photographs of the men and women who shaped the 20th century.
Born in 1908 in the Ottoman Empire, Karsh escaped the Armenian genocide in 1922 by fleeing on foot to Syria. His father then sent him to Canada, where Karsh’s uncle worked as a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec. There Karsh learned photography and later took an apprenticeship with Boston painter and portrait photographer John H. Garo. Karsh opened his photography studio in 1931 and began working for the Ottawa Little Theatre. He had his journalism breakthrough in 1936 when he documented a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
In 1941, his portrait of Winston Churchill with an expression of serious, steady resolve was used as the cover of LIFE magazine. The issue was credited with increasing American public support for WWII. His prolific portraiture would go on to include Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alfred Hitchcock and more.
He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of London, a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and an officer of the Order of Canada. In 2002, he passed away at the age of 93.
His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the National Portrait Gallery in London and many others. His honors included the Canada Council Medal, the United States Presidential Citation, a Gold Medal from the Canadian Association of Photographic Art and the Achievement and Life Award from Encyclopedia Britannica.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of original Yousef Karsh photography.
Georgia O'Keeffe
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Printed later circa 1980-90s. Excellent condition. The piece does NOT include the frame. Frame shown just for reference. From the esta...
Silver Gelatin
Muhammed Ali
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
From a private collector, also an artist, who worked with Yousuf Karsh in the 1970's through inheritance to Weston Gallery. Muhammad Ali 1970 “I photographed (Ali) in 1970, as par...
Silver Gelatin
$1,800
Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz Photograph Portrait Yousuf Karsh Photo Vintage Print
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Surfside, FL
YOUSUF KARSH Vintage Photograph of Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, Dimensions: sight 13 x 10-1/2 overall size is 16.5 X 14 inches mat This bears a studio stamp verso inscribed Copyright...
Photographic Paper
Robert Oppenheimer
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Silver Gelatin
Jacques Cousteau
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Signed on mount recto. Stamped, signed and dated on mount verso. Edition 31/100 - from the Karsh Portfolio (no longer available from the Estate as a single original print). Please co...
Silver Gelatin
Pablo Casals
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographe...
Silver Gelatin
Henry Moore
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Silver Gelatin
Black and White Silver Gelatin Photograph of Igor Stravinsky
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Houston, TX
Black and white silver gelatin portrait photograph of Igor Stravinsky by well-renowned 20th Century photographer Yousuf Karsh. Matted and framed in sil...
Silver Gelatin
Albert Einstein
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Silver Gelatin
Marx Brothers
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Winston Churchill, 1941
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
11 x 14 inches (paper size) 16 x 20 inches (paper size) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print, mounted on card, printed by the artist or under his direct supervision circa 1980s Prove...
Silver Gelatin
Pablo Picasso, 1954 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography)
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
Pablo Picasso, 1954 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print, mounted on card, printed by the artist or under his direct supervision 38 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, Museum of Fine Arts Boston Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was one of the most significant portrait photographers of the twentieth century. His portraits are easily recognisable for their bold use of studio lighting and closely cropped composition. Karsh’s photographs...
Silver Gelatin
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography)
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print 20 x 16 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, ...
Photographic Paper
Martin Luther King, 1960 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography)
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
Martin Luther King, 1960 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print mounted on card, printed by the artist of under his direct supervision 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, Museum of Fine Arts Boston Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was one of the most significant portrait photographers of the twentieth century. His portraits are easily recognisable for their bold use of studio lighting and closely cropped composition. Karsh’s photographs...
Silver Gelatin
Martha Graham, 1948 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography)
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
John F. Kennedy, 1960 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print mounted on card, printed by the artist of under his direct supervision 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, Museum of Fine Arts Boston Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was one of the most significant portrait photographers of the twentieth century. His portraits are easily recognisable for their bold use of studio lighting and closely cropped composition. Karsh’s photographs...
Silver Gelatin
John F. Kennedy, 1960 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography)
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
John F. Kennedy, 1960 - Yousuf Karsh (Portrait Photography) Signed on mount Silver gelatin print mounted on card, printed by the artist of under his direct supervision 13 x 101/4 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, Museum of Fine Arts Boston Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was one of the most significant portrait photographers of the twentieth century. His portraits are easily recognisable for their bold use of studio lighting and closely cropped composition. Karsh’s photographs...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Ernest Hemingway
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in New York, NY
16 x 20
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Pablo Picasso
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in New York, NY
16 x 20
Price Upon Request
Albert Einstein
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer in ink on the mount
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Pablo Picasso 1954
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photograph...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Elixir
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Includes overmat - 28 x 22 inches. Yous...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Andy Warhol, 1979
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographe...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Humphrey Bogart, 1946
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative. We have a few different sizes available, unsigned and authenticated by the estate so conta...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
George Bernard Shaw
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographe...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Georgia OKeeffe
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographer (1908 - 2002) and is considered one of the most renowned portrait photographer of our time. He has perceptively photographed the statesmen, artists, and literary and scientific figures that have shaped our lives in the 20th century. Known for his ability to transform “the human face into legend,” many of the portraits that he created have become virtually the image of the great man or woman they portray, whether Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein or Helen Keller...
Silver Gelatin
Untitled Portrait
By Seydou Keïta
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV Plexi ($900 value), free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. Seydou Keïta Untitled Portrait, 1952 - 1955 (02158) 23...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV plexiglas, free shipping and a 14 day return policy. Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928 15 x 12 inch gelatin silver print Image Size: 14 x 8.5 inches Frame size: 22.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches Edition of 15 Lora Webb Nichols was born in 1883 and grew up in the small mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. At the age of 16 Lora received her first camera and from that moment and for the next few decades she produced work that is both stunning in its singular voice and revealing in the world it opens up for us. At first Nichols photographed her family, friends, and the landscape around Encampment, but when the town experienced a copper mining boom Nichols expanded her scope to become a photographer for hire shooting portraits and industrial photographs. When the boom collapsed, Nichols took the risk of opening her own business in Encampment - The Rocky Mountain Studio - which opened in 1925. The studio ran for ten years, accumulating 24,000 negatives that illustrate the lives and environment of the people living in and around the town while creating a distinctive and surprising body of work. If one was to attempt an analogy – Nichols’ pictures fit somewhere between Lartigue and Lange - joyful and generous while objectively intimate. In particular what seems to distinguish Nichols’ work is the way she sees the world from a female perspective. As Vince Aletti...
Silver Gelatin
$5,000
H 11 in W 14 in
Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$500
H 20 in W 30 in
Michael Ochs 'Brigitte Bardot' Archival Photograph by Getty, 20 x 30
By Michael Ochs
Located in San Rafael, CA
Brigitte Bardot with cigarette in hand by photographer Michael Ochs, originally taken in 1962. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) As an authorized Getty Images Gallery partner, we...
Photographic Paper
Bea with a whip at The Other Side
By Nan Goldin
Located in New York, NY
Nan Goldin Bea with a whip at The Other Side 1973 Gelatin silver print 14 x 11 inches; 36 x 28 cm Edition of 100 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in graphite (lower right verso) ...
Silver Gelatin
$1,620Sale Price|20% Off
H 20 in W 24 in
Daniel Craig Contact Sheet (Limited Edition of 25) - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This is a 2002 contact sheet (a positive print of all the negative images from a roll of 35mm film or medium format film) of youthful-looking Daniel Craig...
Silver Gelatin
$700
H 30 in W 30 in
Harry Benson 'Ali in Training' Archival Photograph by Getty, 30 x 30
By Harry Benson
Located in San Rafael, CA
American Heavyweight boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), training in his gym, 21st May 1965. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) As an authorized Getty ...
Photographic Paper
Gravestone Detail
By Ansel Adams
Located in Pacific Grove, CA
This silver gelatin print is initialed "AA" in felt-tip ink either by the artist or an unknown hand on the front of the mount. This print comes from the collection of the artist's da...
Silver Gelatin
Louis Armstrong, Berlin 1965
Located in Cologne, DE
This black-and-white photo captures jazz legend Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet during a performance in Berlin in 1965. Armstrong, with intense focus, holds the trumpet close to his lips, his cheeks slightly puffed as he blows into the instrument. The lighting creates a dramatic effect, highlighting the shine of the trumpet and his facial expression, which conveys his passion and dedication to the music. Dressed in formal attire, Armstrong stands in the spotlight, embodying his iconic status as one of jazz music's greatest figures. The background is blurred, keeping the focus on Armstrong and his trumpet. The print is new, Highest Quality on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta. More sizes up to 150x150 cm available on request. About Tassilo Leher: Born in the dark years of World War II, Tassilo Leher became an icon of photographic art in divided Germany. As the son of war correspondent Karl Leher, whose lens captured moments of contemporary history, he was born in 1940 in the heart of Berlin. He shared not only the studio in the picturesque Prenzlauer Berg with his father, but also the mysterious world of the darkroom. While Karl Leher, an early riser, made use of the morning hours, Tassilo found his creative flow only by midday, often working late into the night. His camera knew no bounds: from the dazzling stars of East German show business like Phudys, Karat, Hildegard Kneef, Manfred Krug, Bubi Scholz, to international greats such as Dean Reed, Karel Gott, Jiri Korn, and Costa Cordalis – all found themselves in front of his lens. The Friedrichstadt-Palast and numerous film sets became his stages, where he played with light and shadow to perfectly frame famous...
Photographic Paper, Black and White
Louis Armstrong, Berlin 1965
Located in Cologne, DE
This black-and-white photo captures jazz legend Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet during a performance in Berlin in 1965. Armstrong, with intense focus, holds the trumpet close to his lips, his cheeks slightly puffed as he blows into the instrument. The lighting creates a dramatic effect, highlighting the shine of the trumpet and his facial expression, which conveys his passion and dedication to the music...
Photographic Paper, Black and White
$2,400
H 20 in W 15 in
"The Glimmer Twins - Mick Jagger" Photography 20x15 in by Charlie Auringer
Located in Culver City, CA
"The Glimmer Twins - Mick Jagger" Photography 20x15 in by Charlie Auringer Year: 1978 Edition of 50 Medium: Silver gelatin limited edition photographic print on paper Signed and num...
Silver Gelatin
$3,240Sale Price|20% Off
H 30 in W 30 in
Daniel Craig (Limited Edition of 25), 30x30 In - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
Daniel Craig, photographed in 2002 by British celebrity and fashion photographer, John Stoddart, prior to Craigs casting as 007, James Bond. Craig was th...
Silver Gelatin
Winston Churchill
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Written by Yousuf Karsh: 1941 “My portrait of Winston Churchill changed my life. I knew after I had taken it that it was an important picture, but I could hardly have dreamed that it...
Silver Gelatin
Albert Einstein Smiling
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel, CA
Signed in ink with early markings Ottawa. Vintage Photograph. An amazing example of one of the greatest portrait photographers of our generation. Great condition.
Silver Gelatin
Ernest Hemingway
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original Opal V gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career. It was made from the original negative and signed by the artist. In Karsh's words from the 1957 sitting: “I ex...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 9.25 in W 6.25 in D 0.03 in
Portrait of Nikita Khrushchev in Profile, Mid Century Black & White Photograph
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Soquel, CA
Exquisite black and white photograph of Nikita Khrushchev, a portrait in profile of the former Premier of the Soviet Union, by Yousuf Karsh from his ...
Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper
Ernest Hemingway, 1957
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career on one of his favorite papers, the Kodak Opal V which is warm in tone. It was made from the original negative and sign...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 11.97 in W 9.38 in
The beautiful Actress Dina Merrill captured by Karsh of Ottawa
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Cologne, DE
The beautiful Actress Dina Merrill captured by Karsh of Ottawa - Surrounded by a flurry of soft chiffon, looking serene and lovely. Dina Merrill, actual...
Silver Gelatin
Winston Churchill
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Denton, TX
Signed in black ink on mount margin. 30 x 25 x 1 3/3 in. black frame included.
Silver Gelatin
Winston Churchill, 1941
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in London, GB
Signed on mount Silver gelatin print, mounted on card, printed by the artist or under his direct supervision circa 1980s 39 1/4 x 29 1/2 inches Provenance: Estate of Yousuf Karsh, Mu...
Muhammad Ali
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) is one of the masters of 20th century photography. His body of work includes portraits of statesmen, artists, musicians, authors, scientists, and men and wo...
Silver Gelatin
Robert Frost
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Denton, TX
Signed and numbered. Paper size: 24 x 20 in. Image size: 23 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.
Silver Gelatin
Audrey Hepburn
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Signed on the front of the mount. Rare - no photographs left in the Yousuf Karsh Estate. Printed later and signed by the artist.
Silver Gelatin
John F. Kennedy
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Original gelatin silver print made later in the artist's career from the original negative and signed by the artist on the front of the mount. Includes overmat - 28 x 22 inches. You...
Silver Gelatin