Alfred Stieglitz The Steerage 1907 Large format photogravure on Japanese tissue, printed 1915-1916. 13 1/8 x 10 3/8 in. (33.3 x 26.4 cm) Signed, titled and dated in pencil on the overmat; printed credit, title and medium on a Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences collection label affixed to the reverse of the mount.
Provenance Gifted from the Collection of Walter E. Owen to The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Christie's, New York, 'Photographic Masterworks' 23 April 1990, lot 21 Literature Stieglitz, 291, September-October 1915 Bulfinch Press, Alfred Stieglitz pl. 18 Camera Work, October 1911, Number 36 Green, A Critical History of American Photography, p. 195 Greenough, Alfred Stieglitz The Key Set, Volume One, cat. nos. 310-314 Margolis, Alfred Stieglitz Camera Work: A Pictorial Guide, p. 100 Norman, Alfred Stieglitz An American Seer, pl. XVI Taschen, Photo Icons: The Story Behind the Pictures, Volume 1, p. 135 The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Alfred Stieglitz Photographer, pl. 8 Whelan, Alfred Stieglitz A Biography, Photography, Georgia O'Keeffe and the Rise of the Avant-Garde in America, n.p. ArtForum, 'On the Invention of Photographic Meaning', January 1975, p. 36 Catalogue Essay Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage, taken in 1907, stands at a major professional crossroad whose outcome had a deep impact on the artist. As the patriarch of American Photography at the turn of the last century, Stieglitz had initially extolled the tenets of Pictorialism, the art movement that championed the simulation of painterly effects in photography. As a result, many of the photographs taken by the leading photographers at the time, from Edward Steichen to Gertrude Käsebier were marked by gentle lighting, soft lenses, and deeply atmospheric staged compositions that were strongly Impressionistic. The Steerage, however, became Stieglitz’s fulcrum pivoting away from Pictorialism. Taken during a trip to Europe with his wife, Stieglitz captured the un-staged scene as he wondered away from the posh, cushy folds of First Class and meandered into the steerage. “I saw shapes related to each other,” Stieglitz later remembered. Accordingly, the image is Modernist in its composition: a strong diagonal line slices through the frame, causing a jarring bifurcation of the scenes unfolding. Also gone is the central focal point that typified most Pictorialist photographs. The Steerage is marked by the formerly-repudiated lynchpins of photography: clarity, linearity and tonality. After revisiting the image a number of years following the negative date, Stieglitz reproduced the image on a number of occasions and lauded its significance as his first Modernist masterpiece. Read More
Alfred Stieglitz The Steerage 1907 Large format photogravure on Japanese tissue, printed 1915-1916. 13 1/8 x 10 3/8 in. (33.3 x 26.4 cm) Signed, titled and dated in pencil on the overmat; printed credit, title and medium on a Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences collection label affixed to the reverse of the mount.
Provenance Gifted from the Collection of Walter E. Owen to The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Christie's, New York, 'Photographic Masterworks' 23 April 1990, lot 21 Literature Stieglitz, 291, September-October 1915 Bulfinch Press, Alfred Stieglitz pl. 18 Camera Work, October 1911, Number 36 Green, A Critical History of American Photography, p. 195 Greenough, Alfred Stieglitz The Key Set, Volume One, cat. nos. 310-314 Margolis, Alfred Stieglitz Camera Work: A Pictorial Guide, p. 100 Norman, Alfred Stieglitz An American Seer, pl. XVI Taschen, Photo Icons: The Story Behind the Pictures, Volume 1, p. 135 The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Alfred Stieglitz Photographer, pl. 8 Whelan, Alfred Stieglitz A Biography, Photography, Georgia O'Keeffe and the Rise of the Avant-Garde in America, n.p. ArtForum, 'On the Invention of Photographic Meaning', January 1975, p. 36 Catalogue Essay Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage, taken in 1907, stands at a major professional crossroad whose outcome had a deep impact on the artist. As the patriarch of American Photography at the turn of the last century, Stieglitz had initially extolled the tenets of Pictorialism, the art movement that championed the simulation of painterly effects in photography. As a result, many of the photographs taken by the leading photographers at the time, from Edward Steichen to Gertrude Käsebier were marked by gentle lighting, soft lenses, and deeply atmospheric staged compositions that were strongly Impressionistic. The Steerage, however, became Stieglitz’s fulcrum pivoting away from Pictorialism. Taken during a trip to Europe with his wife, Stieglitz captured the un-staged scene as he wondered away from the posh, cushy folds of First Class and meandered into the steerage. “I saw shapes related to each other,” Stieglitz later remembered. Accordingly, the image is Modernist in its composition: a strong diagonal line slices through the frame, causing a jarring bifurcation of the scenes unfolding. Also gone is the central focal point that typified most Pictorialist photographs. The Steerage is marked by the formerly-repudiated lynchpins of photography: clarity, linearity and tonality. After revisiting the image a number of years following the negative date, Stieglitz reproduced the image on a number of occasions and lauded its significance as his first Modernist masterpiece. Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
