c. 1889
(American, 1852–1934)
Platinum print mounted to Japanese paper
Image: 18.6 x 12 cm (7 5/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Paper: 18.6 x 12 cm (7 5/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Mounted: 30 x 21.1 cm (11 13/16 x 8 5/16 in.)
Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2022.116
Gertrude Käsebier did not begin to study art until she was 37 and had 3 adolescent children.
Italy provides insight into Käsebier’s earliest artistic productions. The woman’s pose and central placement emphasize the picture’s formalism and careful construction. Her rigid vertical posture echoes the trees in the background. Soft focus, a device borrowed from Pictorialist photography, frustrates a clear view of her features, suggesting that the image is neither portrait nor snapshot but a symbolic statement about womanhood and its association with nature.
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