My Father

1894, printed 1895/1896

Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    platinum print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 18.7 × 14 cm (7 3/8 × 5 1/2 in.)
    page size: 33.8 × 27 cm (13 5/16 × 10 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1949.3.224

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    53D

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more
  • Key Set Number

    237

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. 237.

Inscriptions

by Alfred Stieglitz, on interleaving tissue, lower right, in graphite: My Father / 1894

Wikidata ID

Q64037666

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

Born Ephraim Stieglitz in 1833 in Münden, Germany, Alfred Stieglitz’s father changed his name to Edward when he immigrated to the United States in 1848. He was a successful supplier of woolen cloth to stores throughout the East Coast, and was able to retire in 1881 at forty-eight. An amateur artist, he also collected art and supported several painters and sculptors, including Moses Ezekiel and Fedor Encke (see Key Set number 241).

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, 1949.697 [gelatin silver] (inscribed: G1)

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, YCAL MSS 85, box 123, folder 2463 [gelatin silver]

Other Collections

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

Bill Schubart

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, study collection (inscribed: “Portrait” / (Untouched) / By Alfred Stieglitz, New York, U.S.A.)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2006.3.1.1

Private collection

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:

1896, New York, The Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, “Third Annual Members’ Exhibition” (as My Father)
1897, Calcutta (no. 208, as My Father, gold medal)
1897, London, R.P.S. (no. 440, as My Father—Non Studio Portrait, lantern slide)
1897, New York (as Portrait, My Father, lantern slide)
1898, New York, Camera Club (no. 12, as “My Father”)
1898, New York, American Institute (no. 149, as My Father)
1898, Philadelphia (no. 202, as My Father)
1899, New York (no. 21, as The Portrait of My Father, 1895, platinum direct)
1921, New York (no. 4, as My Father, 1890)

Lifetime Publications

A reproduction of this work appeared in the following publication(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

“Our Portrait Competition,” The Photographic Times 26 (January 1895): opp. 33 (ill., Portrait from Life, silver medal in competition)

Beilage zur Deutschen Photographen Zeitung 30 (1895): (ill., Portrait)

Photograms of the Year (London, 1897): 28 (ill., My Father)

F. Schiffner, “Zur Geschichte der Künstlerischen Photographie,” Photographisches Centralblatt 4 (December 1898): 437 (ill., Portrait Meines Vaters)

Charles DeKay, “The Photographer As Artist,” The New York Times Illustrated Magazine (4 June 1899): 7 (ill., My Father / From an Open-Air Photograph)

Theodore Dreiser, “The Camera Club of New York,” Ainslee’s Magazine 4 (October 1899): 333 (ill., Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz)


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