PHOTOGRAPHS
Käsebier, Gertrude
U.S. (1852 - 1934)
The Picture Book
1903
Photogravure
6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 22 cm) image size; 8 3/8 x 11 3/4 in. (21.3 x 29.8 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.249

Gertrude Käsebier was a member of the Photo-Secession group, a movement led by photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz that approached photography as a art form akin to painting or sculpture, and which employed a deliberately unclear focus to achieve an artistic effect. The soft, shimmering effect of The Picture-book is an example of Photo-Secession technique.

It was not until Gertrude Käsebier had married and raised a family that she was able to study drawing and painting. While studying at the Pratt Institute in New York, she became involved with photography, and won two prizes for her photographs in 1894. This inspired her to take on photography as a career. She was a colleague of photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, who called her the leading portraitist of the day. She was a member of the Photo-Secession group led by Stieglitz, a movement that approached photography as an art form akin to painting or sculpture, and which employed a deliberately unclear focus to achieve an artistic effect. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.