Marcel Duchamp

1923

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

The image shows a sepia-toned portrait of a person's upper body from the shoulders up. The subject is in profile, facing to the left. They have smooth, combed back hair of medium length, a straight nose, sharp jawline, and a slightly prominent brow. They are wearing a collared white shirt with a dark suit jacket and a striped tie. The background is a plain, light-colored wall.

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 (visible): 20.2 × 19.1 cm (7 15/16 × 7 1/2 in.)
    mount: 52.1 × 46.4 cm (20 1/2 × 18 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.586

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    38C

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    841

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

1991

  • Group Portrait: The First American Avant-Garde, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, May 10–October 27, 1991

2009

  • Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 2009

Bibliography

1983

  • Greenough, Sarah, and Juan Hamilton. Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings. Washington, 1983: no. 70, pl. 32.

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 2, cat. 841.

2009

  • Goodyear, Anne Collins, and James W. McManus, eds. Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 2009.

Inscriptions

by Doris Bry, on mount, lower left, in graphite: Treated by Steichen-6/50; lower left verso: 38 C

Wikidata ID

Q64035234

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

According to a letter from Charles Demuth to Stieglitz (16 April 1923, YCAL, see Key Set number 842), Stieglitz made this portrait and Key Set number 840 around the same time as Key Set numbers 842–845.

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:

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, YCAL MSS 85, box 124, folder 2472 [gelatin silver]

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:

possibly 1923, New York (no. 71, as Marcel Duchamp, 1923)
possibly 1944, Philadelphia (no. 179, as Marcel Duchamp, 1923, platinum)

You may be interested in

Loading Results