The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Blessed Art Thou Among Women

1899

Gertrude Käsebier

(American, 1852–1934)
America
platinum print
Image: 24.1 x 14.1 cm (9 1/2 x 5 9/16 in.); Paper: 24.1 x 14.1 cm (9 1/2 x 5 9/16 in.); Mounted: 29.4 x 17.8 cm (11 9/16 x 7 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.88
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In this allegory of motherly love, poet and translator Agnes Rand Lee gently ushers her daughter into a changing world.

Description

While Lee’s loose gown evokes the past and the domestic sphere, the girl’s spartan attire and practical hairdo suggest she is being sent into the world, on the path to maturity and independence. In 1899, as more women began to work outside the home, there were signs that the new century might offer them even greater freedom and rights. Gertrude Käsebier, who also had a daughter, suggests that hope of a better future for women in this photograph.
  • ?-2017
    Tracey Alsop, Skowhegan, ME
    2017–22
    (Lee Gallery Fine Photographs, Winchester, MA), sold to Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, Inc., New York, NY
    2022
    (Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Fine Photographs, Inc., New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 12, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Blessed Art Thou Among Women|url=false|author=Gertrude Käsebier|year=1899|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.88