Edward Steichen

caption 'Vogue fashion,' date 'Mar-4-1927,' and number '25' in the negative, mounted, credit, title, date, copyright, and Museum of Modern Art annotations by Grace Mayer and in an unidentified hand in pencil, and number '#54 [circled]' in red crayon on the reverse, 1927

Collection of Joanna T. Steichen, the photographer's widow

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 2001

'The Paris Mode, As New York Likes It: Seven Pages of Outstanding Fashions,' Vogue, 1 May 1927, p. 59

Margaret Case Harriman, 'Steichen,' Vogue, 1 January 1938, p. 36

'Edward Steichen: His Photographs and Achievements,' U. S. Camera Annual 1956, p. 27

Steichen the Photographer (The Museum of Modern Art, 1961), p. 46

Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Garden City, 1963), pl. 104

Joanna Steichen, ed., Steichen’s Legacy: Photographs, 1895-1973 (New York, 2000), pl. 97

Nancy Hall Duncan, The History of Fashion Photography (George Eastman House, 1977), p. 51

Polly Devlin, Vogue Book of Fashion Photography, 1919-1979 (New York, 1979), p. 30

William A. Ewing and Todd Brandow, Edward Steichen: In High Fashion—The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937 (London, 2007), fig. 90, p. 115

This luminous early contact print is on matte-surface paper and is mounted on a large buff-colored mount. The print, with graphite crop marks along the negative edges, is in generally excellent condition. The edges are somewhat rubbed, and there is a small chip in the lower negative edge that does not affect the image. The mount is soiled, with adhesive remains across the top of the mount. There is a small fragment of cellulose tape affixed to the lower portion of the mount. There are graphite crop marks on the mount at the upper corners of the image. The edges are rubbed and age-darkened, and the right corners of the mount are lacking. The reverse is soiled and age-darkened.
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Edward Steichen returned to New York from France in 1923, having abandoned painting to devote himself entirely to photography.  He was soon hired by publisher Condé Nast as chief photographer at Vanity Fair and Vogue. 

During his 15 years with Condé Nast, Steichen established the standards for what is modern fashion photography.  Cheruit Gown, Marion Morehouse, is one of Steichen’s best and most memorable fashion images in this genre. Posing not in a studio, but in the hallway of Condé Nast’s Park Avenue duplex, the actress Marion Morehouse, Steichen’s favorite model, wears a sequined deconstructed gown that shimmers.  In her posture and her expression, innovative for the era, she radiates vitality and sexuality: a bold, modern woman in a beautiful dress.