Herbert J. Seligmann

1921

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

The image shows the upper part of a man's body. He is in a seated position, facing towards the camera. The man has a rounded face, a small mustache, and round spectacles. He has a receding hairline and short-cropped hair. The man is wearing a textured suit jacket over a white shirt with a black tie. In the background, there is a reflection of the man in a mirror. The setting seems to be indoors with soft lighting, giving a warm tone to the image. The setting appears plain, with limited visible details other than the mirror.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    palladium print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    image: 23.7 × 18.9 cm (9 5/16 × 7 7/16 in.)
    sheet: 25.2 × 20.2 cm (9 15/16 × 7 15/16 in.)
    mount: 55.8 × 46 cm (21 15/16 × 18 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.465

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    85B

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    704

The image shows a man leaning his head on his hand, positioned with his face resting on his left hand. He has a mustache, thin-framed eyeglasses, and thick, greying hair that curls slightly at the edges. He is dressed in a formal jacket, a white shirt, and a black bow tie. The background is a soft, dark blur.

Alfred Stieglitz

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 704.

Inscriptions

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, lower left, in graphite: Treated by Steichen 1949
by later hand, center verso, in graphite: K / 85 B; on mount, lower left verso: 85 B

Wikidata ID

Q64034991

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

Critic, poet, essayist, and photographer Herbert J. Seligmann was a close friend and associate of Stieglitz from the late 1910s through the 1920s. In the 1920s he transcribed numerous conversations and remarks by Stieglitz and published them in Alfred Stieglitz Talking (1966).

“Have a very good print of you. Don’t know whether it is a ‘portrait’ or not. It’s a phase at any rate” (Stieglitz to Herbert Seligmann, 4 August 1921 [YCAL]).

Other Collections

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

New York Public Library, Herbert J. Seligmann Papers

Lifetime Exhibitions

A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

1923, New York (no. 68, as Herbert J. Seligmann, 1921)
1932, New York (no. 81, as Herbert J. Seligmann, 1923)

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