Street Sweeper and Little Tree

1900/1901, printed 1929/1932

Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

Printed with silvery tones, a single tall tree with a spindly trunk and sparse canopy grows inside a round cage set into a sidewalk in this tall, narrow photograph. The tree is just left of center. A short distance away, a person wearing a light coat and a dark cap cleans the street along the gutter near the left side of the photograph. The sidewalk and street to our right gleams with rain, and horse-drawn carriages are like smudged silhouettes in the hazy distance. Skyscrapers are outlined against a misty sky in the top half of this picture.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 9.7 x 3.9 cm (3 13/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
    mount: 34.3 x 27.5 cm (13 1/2 x 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1949.3.260

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    127A

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    271

Alfred Stieglitz

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 16–April 27, 1958

1992

  • Stieglitz in the Darkroom, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 4, 1992–February 14, 1993

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 271.

Inscriptions

by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, lower left verso, in graphite: Spring Showers 1898 [underlined] / N.Y. / A 1 rare
by later hand, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: 110

Wikidata ID

Q64034769

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

The titles for this photograph and Key Set number 272 are taken from the checklist for Stieglitz’s 1932 exhibition.

For more information about this photograph, see Key Set number 269.

Stieglitz Collections

A corresponding print was given to the following institution(s) by Alfred Stieglitz during his lifetime, or was received or acquired from the estate:

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 37.1950

Other Collections

A print corresponding with this photograph can also be found in the following collection(s):

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2004.672

Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997-146-105 (inscribed: For Dorothy / April 30/32 / “Spring Showers”—1902 / Alfred Stieglitz)

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, P.2014.106

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