Edward Steichen

waxed gum-bichromate print, signed and dated in Roman numerals by the photographer in gouache on the image, matted, framed, circa 1907

Other prints of this image:

Camera Work Number 34/35 (New York, 1911), pl. 5

Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (New York, 1963), pl. 50

Dennis Longwell, Steichen: The Master Prints, 1895-1914, The Symbolist Period (The Museum of Modern Art, 1978), pl. 46

Todd Brandow and William A. Ewing, Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography (Minneapolis and Lausanne, 2007, in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography), pl. 53

Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Ten Years, 1979-1989 (Zurich, 1989), unpaginated

Lunn Gallery/Graphics International Ltd., Catalogue 6: Photo-Secession (Washington, D. C., 1977), pl. 321

This large and impressive gum-bichromate print is on heavy paper with a smooth surface. The print's delicate sheen is likely due to Steichen's application of some variety of coating on the surface. The print's dark tones are a rich and deep black, the highlights are the soft yellow and olive tones one frequently sees in Steichen's prints from this period. The print is essentially in excellent condition. When examined closely in raking light, a small crescent-shaped handling crease can be seen above the center of the bottom edge. When examined very closely, two diffuse areas of faint warm-toned discoloration can be seen in Rodin's collar and to a lesser extent in his hair. This is not immediately apparent and does not diminish the impact of the print. There are two areas of old paper remains on the reverse of the print, indicating that it was at one time affixed to a mount.
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This imposing portrait of Rodin is one of an extensive number of studies Steichen made of the sculptor and his work, a series that also includes the famous Rodin—Le Penseur, a composite photograph in which the sculptor's profile is combined with two of his statues, as well as a sequence of photographs of the monumental Balzac in moonlight, from 1908.  The expressive portrait offered here, with downturned eyes and contemplative gesture, recalls the Le Penseur and echoes a similar, but less fully realized, photograph of the artist made by Steichen in 1902 (reproduced in A Life in Photography, pl. 14).    

At the time of this writing, only three early prints of this image have been located, two in institutional collections: a platinum print with mercury toning in the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago; a platinum print in The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and a silver print offered by the Galerie Zur Stockeregg in 1989, now in a private collection. This image was used as the frontispiece for Judith Cladel's Auguste Rodin: l'Ouevre et l'Homme, an important early Rodin monograph published in Brussels in 1908, where it is reproduced in reverse.  Most often seen is the photogravure of the image from Camera Work Number 34/35, a special double issue devoted to Rodin and his work.  In his description of the illustrations for this double issue, Stieglitz notes that the Rodin portrait, as a 'large gum print,' was exhibited for the first time at the Photo-Secession Gallery in April 1909 (Camera Work No. 34/35, p. 69).  This exhibition, comprised primarily of photographs of Rodin's Balzac, ran from 21 April to 7 May 1909, and it is possible that the print offered here was the one included in that exhibition. 

Meeting Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) and seeing his work were the inspiration for the young Steichen's first trip to Paris in 1900.  Passionate, deeply committed to his artistic ideals, and above all controversial, the sculptor represented for Steichen all that was potent and revolutionary in modern aesthetics.  In his autobiographical Life in Photography, Steichen writes that at his first meeting with Rodin in 1901, he confessed to the sculptor that the 'great ambition of his life' was to take the artist's portrait.  Steichen went on to become Rodin's anointed photographer, and it is said that he made more portraits of Rodin than of any other sitter.  Steichen not only photographed Rodin, but he also worked to promote the sculptor's work in the United States, arranging for shows of Rodin's drawings at the galleries of the Photo-Secession in 1908 and 1910, and collaborating with Stieglitz to create the special Rodin double issue of Camera Work Number 34/35.  Over the years, Rodin became one of Steichen's closest friends and referred to the photographer as 'mon fils.'  Their friendship ended only with Captain Edward Steichen's presence, as representative of the United States Army, at Rodin's funeral in 1917.