Alfred Stieglitz 1864-1946

The photographer to Paul B. Haviland

Graphics International, Ltd., Washington, D.C.

Acquired by the Gilman Paper Company from the above, 1978

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pictorialism in New York, 1900 - 1915, February - May 1998

Paris, Constructed Views: Photography and Architecture, Paris Photo, November 1998

Pierre Apraxine and Lee Marks, Photographs from the Collection from the Gilman Paper Company (White Oak Press, 1985), pl. 153 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

Greenough 393

Waldo Frank et al., America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait (New York, 1934), pl. XIII-A

Doris Bry, Exhibition of Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz (National Gallery of Art, 1958, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 5 

Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer (New York, 1973), p. 12; Aperture edition, p. 99

Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings (National Gallery of Art, 1983, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 23

Peter Galassi, American Photography 1890 - 1965 from The Museum of Modern Art (The Museum of Modern Art, 1995, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 97

Sarah Greenough et al., Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries (National Gallery of Art, 2000, in conjunction with the exhibition), pp. 4 and 184

This quintessential image of Stieglitz’s pioneering 291 gallery documents the photographer’s dedication to exhibiting challenging new art, as well as his commitment to the straightforward, wholly photographic, approach that characterized his mature work.  As with the photographs he made of city views outside his gallery’s windows, this rigorously-composed photograph transcends its role as a document.  With its unadorned depiction of the gallery, and the creative presentation of art and other objects, the photograph illustrates Stieglitz’s dual talents as a gallerist and photographer. 

Sarah Greenough identifies the two Picasso works on view in this photograph as Still Life: Bottle and Glass on Table (1912), and Violin (circa 1912).  The African piece is a Kota reliquary figure, and the large brass bowl was a constant fixture at the gallery and was frequently filled with floral displays (cf. Greenough 393).   Edward Steichen, the conduit for a good deal of the European art exhibited at 291, writes in his autobiography, A Life in Photography, that he was responsible for the design of the installation pictured here:

            ‘We had a few drawings by Braque and Picasso, and I determined that they would be fine material for the next exhibition.  I bought some bolts of cheesecloth, the cheapest I could find, and we covered the dust-darkened walls with it.  A lad by the name of [Emil] Zoler, who had become a sort of shadow to Stieglitz, helped me pin up the cheesecloth.  I took down the denim curtains hiding our storage shelves and sent them out to be dyed black.  Then I hung the few Braques and Picassos on the walls and several of the more or less related African sculptures with them.  The place looked clean, fresh, and alive again, but I felt something was missing. The exhibition needed a real object, a stone or a piece of wood or something.  When I mentioned this, Zoler said he had a big wasp’s nest in fine condition.  A wasp’s nest was perfect, especially in relationship to the Cubism we had on the wall, and it was brought in’ (A Life in Photography, Chapter 5, unpaginated). 

The photograph offered here came originally from the collection of Paul Burty Haviland.  Born in France to a wealthy family of porcelain manufacturers, Haviland was educated in Paris and at Harvard.  In January 1908, he visited the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, later known simply as 291, to see the landmark exhibition of Rodin drawings.  Haviland purchased a number of these, and soon became both a regular visitor and an important supporter of Stieglitz and his gallery.  Haviland’s financial support was crucial to sustaining 291 and Camera Work (of which he was an editor, as well as a contributing photographer), and later the avant-garde publication 291.  Stieglitz counted upon him as a close friend and advisor.  As such, it is fitting that Haviland should own a print of this definitive image of 291.  Stieglitz authority Doris Bry points out that, given Haviland’s importance to Stieglitz, the photographer would have made sure that Haviland got the best possible print of this image.  The photograph offered here is one of a group of Photo-Secessionist and Haviland photographs handled by Harry H. Lunn, Jr., in 1977, that came directly from the Haviland family (cf. Lunn Gallery, Graphics International, Photo-Secession, Catalogue 6, Washington, D. C., 1977).

In Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs, Greenough locates 5 other prints of this image: at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; and in a private collection.  While Greenough refers to the Gilman Paper Company's print, offered here, as a gelatin silver print, recent examination has determined that this is a platinum print. 

It is believed that only three other Stieglitz photographs of this installation have appeared at auction.  All, like the print presented to Haviland, were given by Stieglitz to people who had a special involvement in his endeavors at this time.  One, a variant of the image offered here, came from the collection of Emil Zoler, Stieglitz’s assistant, who provided the wasp nest for the installation (Sotheby’s New York, 18 April 1997, Sale 6973, Lot 86).  Another was sold at Christie’s New York (8 October 1993, Sale 7734, Lot 81), from the collection of Stieglitz patron Aline Meyer Liebman.  The third print was offered, unillustrated in the catalogue, at Swann Galleries on 6 November 1980 (Sale 1199, Lot 395), and was inscribed by Stieglitz to ‘Marie,’ presumably Marie Rapp, his secretary at 291.