Waldo Frank

1920

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

The image depicts a man seated on a porch. He is facing slightly to the side in a wooden chair. He has fair skin, a mustache, and neatly combed dark hair. He is wearing a dark suit with a vest, a white shirt, and a dark tie. He is holding a knife and an apple and there are apple peelings on the ground. The porch has vertical wooden paneling and a potted plant nearby. The background shows wooden planks on the floor and a dark interior through an open doorway.

Media Options

This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    palladium print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    image: 23.8 × 18.9 cm (9 3/8 × 7 7/16 in.)
    sheet: 25.3 × 20.2 cm (9 15/16 × 7 15/16 in.)
    mount: 56.3 × 46.3 cm (22 3/16 × 18 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.500

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    32C

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    643

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

Curious for more Alfred Stieglitz scholarship?

Discover over 1,000 artworks that the artist’s wife Georgia O’Keeffe termed his “Key Set” of prize photographs. Museum scholars have illuminated each work, his career, practices, and lifetime achievements.

Learn about the Key Set

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1983

  • Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 3–May 8, 1983; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 17–August 14, 1983; The Art Institute of Chicago, October 18, 1983–January 3, 1984

2001

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2001

Bibliography

1983

  • Greenough, Sarah, and Juan Hamilton. Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings. Washington, 1983: no. 101, pl. 49.

1990

  • Lowe, Sue Davidson. "Taken Lightly." Art & Antiques (Summer 1990): repro. 109.

2000

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001: no. 95.

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 643.

Inscriptions

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, lower left, in graphite: Treated by Steichen 1949

Wikidata ID

Q64035064

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

Stieglitz wrote to Waldo Frank several times regarding this photograph and others made in the summer of 1920: “I am mounting the summer’s work—Your portrait is really fine & was mounted this morning” (15 December 1920 [YCAL]). “I have been trying to get a complete expression of your ‘Apple Portrait.’—And invariably I miss it” (8 August 1921 [YCAL]).

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 Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.722

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 28.128.2

Other Collections

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

Waldo Frank Papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

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:

1921, New York (nos. 86–88, as Waldo Frank, 1920)
1932, New York (no. 82, as Waldo Frank, 1922)

You may be interested in

Loading Results