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Italy

c. 1889

Gertrude Käsebier

(American, 1852–1934)
Culture
America
Medium
platinum print mounted to Japanese paper
Measurements
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.)
Credit Line
Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2022.116
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Gertrude Käsebier did not begin to study art until she was 37 and had 3 adolescent children.

Description

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.
A vertically oriented platinum print depicts a woman with light skin tone standing in profile on a grassy bank. Facing left with closed eyes and hair pulled back, she wears a dark dress with voluminous puffed sleeves, a ruffled hem, and dark gloves. A body of water flows behind her, while a row of slender trees marks the distant horizon. The soft, monochromatic medium creates a contemplative atmosphere, emphasizing her silhouette against the landscape.

Italy

c. 1889

Gertrude Käsebier

(American, 1852–1934)
America

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