Gertrude Käsebier

Lauded by Alfred Stieglitz as being “beyond dispute the leading portrait photographer in this country,” Gertrude Käsebier was distinguished by her peers for her pictorial approach to portraiture. By 1897, she had opened a commercial portrait studio in New York, and in 1900 made this image of fellow photographer John Arthur Mooney, a subject she would return to a decade later. Mooney was a peripheral member of the circle that established the Photo-Secession.

In its original exhibition frame, this platinum print is accompanied by a fragment of its Photo-Secession gallery label, possibly representative of its inclusion in a photography salon or group exhibition in the years following the movement’s 1902 nascence. Together with annotations in Stieglitz’s graceful handwriting, the fragment is stamped “loan collection of the Photo-Secession” -- indicating that this particular work was hand-selected by Stieglitz as being representative of the group, and thus included in their collaborative presence in the corresponding exhibition.