About This Artwork
Edward Steichen
American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973
Kitty and Alfred Stieglitz1905
Platinum print
24.2 x 23.4 cm
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.874
Edward Steichen began his career under the wings of photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who was also a modern-art gallerist. When Stieglitz saw the 21-year-old's portfolio in 1900, he was sufficiently impressed to buy three prints. The two men gradually built a strong personal and professional relationship. Stieglitz promoted the younger artist through Camera Work, his exquisitely printed quarterly journal, and with Steichen's help, he started the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which eventually became known as Gallery 291. This rich platinum print depicting Stieglitz and his daughter Kitty reflects the prevailing aesthetic of fine-art photography around the turn of the 20th century. As proponents of pictorialism, Stieglitz, Steichen, and many of their contemporaries sought to elevate photography to the status of high art by infusing their work with handcraft and painterly effects.
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, "Alfred Stieglitz and his Contemporaries," September 9–November 3, 1997.
AIC, "Photographs by the Score: Personal Visions Twenty-some Years Apart," October 7, 2006–January 14, 2007. (David Travis)
Publication History
Longwell, Dennis. 1978. “Steichen: The Master Prints: 1895–1914: The Symbolist Period.” Museum of Modern Art/New York Graphic Society. p. 106. pl. 42. (other print of this image)
Steichen, Edward. 1963. "A Life in Photography." Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday & Company. pl. 38. (other print of this image)