WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Karl Blossfeldt

Karl Blossfeldt

German, 1865

WA-00031958

Schielo, Germany

PhotographyPhotography

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

Assets Indexed

Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

70%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (1)

MoMA

Field Verification (3 fields)

3 cross-verified · 0 single-source

Birth yearMoMA· 93%✓
LocationMoMA· 93%✓
NationalityMoMA· 93%✓

Source Registry (1)

MoMA bulk 2026-05-04https://www.moma.org/artists/24413
Tier 1 · Institutional92%

About

Why this artist matters now

A teacher at the Royal Arts Museum in Berlin, Karl Blossfeldt became a celebrated photographer nearly overnight after the 1928 publication of his Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature), a photo catalogue filled with images of plants. Blossfeldt, who studied sculpture and iron casting but had no formal training in photography, built a camera to magnify his subjects. Arranged with stark, neutral backgrounds, his photographs of plant life reveal the architectural intricacies of tendrils, petals, and root hairs on flower stems. Urformen der Kunst was intended to be a pedagogic tool for German industrial and commercial designers, not a collection of avant-garde, modernist photographs, yet it led designers and artists alike to look at the natural world through a new lens.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 29d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Photography

Medium

Photography

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Rijksmuseum The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern ArtNew York Art Institute of Chicago

Canonical record

Artworks (14)

WattsOS

Nigella Damascena Spinnenkopf

1930 · Gelatin silver print

25.2 x 19.3 cm. (9 15/16 x 7 5/8 in.)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Equisetum Hiemale (Magnified 12 Times), Hosta Japonica (Magnified 4 Times), and Equisetum Hiemale (Magnified 12 Times)

1928 · Photogravure, plate 7 from "Art Forms in Nature (Urformen der Kunst)" (1928)

Left image: 19 × 8.1 cm (7 1/2 × 3 1/4 in.); Center image: 19.1 × 8.1 cm (7 9/16 × 3 1/4 in.); Right image: 19.1 × 8 cm (7 9/16 × 3 3/16 in.); Page: 31.4 × 24.2 cm (12 3/8 × 9 9/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Urformen der Kunst

1928 · rotogravure on ink, paper

height: 312 cm, width: 242 cm

Rijksmuseum

Urformen der Kunst : photographische Pflanzenbilder

1928 · rotogravure on paper, ink

height: 319 cm, thickness: 30 cm, width: 258 cm

Rijksmuseum

Plantstudie

1928 · rotogravure on paper, ink

width: 242 cm, height: 312 cm

Rijksmuseum

Oriental Poppy, Enlargement 5 (Papaver Orientalis, Orientalischer Mohn, Verg. 5)

1915 · Gelatin silver print

Image/paper: 29.7 × 11.9 cm (11 3/4 × 4 11/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

WattsOS

Blumenbachia hieronymi

1915 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 29.8 x 23.8 cm (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 in.)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Equisetum hyemale (Rough Horsetail Enlarged 25 Times)

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1920-32

23 7/16 × 9 5/16" (59.5 × 23.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Acanthus mollis (Soft Acanthus, Bear's Breeches. Bracteoles with the Flowers Removed, Enlarged 4 Times)

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1920-32

11 3/4 × 9 3/8" (29.8 × 23.8 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Saxifraga wilkommiana (Willkom's Saxifrage. Rosette of Leaves Enlarged 10 Times)

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1920-32

11 5/8 × 9 5/16" (29.5 × 23.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Adiantum pedatum

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1924-32

11 11/16 × 9 3/8" (29.7 × 23.8 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Hordeum distichum

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1920-32

11 5/8 × 9 5/16" (29.6 × 23.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Passiflora,

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1920-32

11 3/4 × 9 3/8" (29.8 × 23.8 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Chrysanthemum segetum (Feverfew Enlarged 8 Times),

1898 · Gelatin silver print, printed 1915-32

11 15/16 × 9 7/16" (30.4 × 23.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

View all 14 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

14 published of 21 catalogued · 19 with image

MoMA
7 publishedof 14 catalogued14 img
Rijksmuseum
3 published3 img
Art Institute Chicago
2 published2 img
The Met
2 published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 3)

3 entries · 1 sources

Plantstudie
1928 · Rijksmuseum · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Urformen der Kunst
1928 · Rijksmuseum · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Urformen der Kunst : photographische Pflanzenbilder
1928 · Rijksmuseum · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Artsy

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

Movements1

Photography

Collections4

Rijksmuseum The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern Art Art Institute of Chicago

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Rijksmuseum

In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

No exhibitions or timeline entries yet