Ellen Koeniger, Lake George

1916

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

The image shows a woman from the upper thigh upwards, capturing her full upper body. She is seen climbing out of a body of water, using metal railings on both sides for support. The woman is wearing a wet, dark swimsuit that extends to her thighs, and her head is adorned with a swim cap, which secures her hair away from her face. Her facial expression is one of contentment, with her eyes closed and a broad smile. Water droplets can be seen on her skin. The background is blurred, consisting of more water and a hint of greenery.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 10.9 × 8 cm (4 5/16 × 3 1/8 in.)
    mount: 34.2 × 27.2 cm (13 7/16 × 10 11/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.389

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    235B

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    449

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

Exhibition History

1995

  • Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George, Museum of Modern Art, New York, September 14, 1995–January 2, 1996

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 449.

Inscriptions

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: 235 B

Wikidata ID

Q64034901

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

In the summer of 1916, Alfred Stieglitz took a series of 11 exuberant snapshots of Ellen Koeniger in a wet, clinging bathing suit. The niece of Frank Eugene, a photographer and friend of Stieglitz, Koeniger was visiting the Stieglitz family estate at Lake George in upstate New York.

The athletic Koeniger is pictured almost cinematically in the sparkling sunlight: on the dock, on the ladder into the lake, and in the water, we see her twisting, turning, leaning, and reaching, her arms outstretched or akimbo. Stieglitz shows her movements from the front and behind, from above and below, in profile and head-on, in close-up and from a distance. Sharply focused, the photographs capture the beads of water on Koeniger’s skin and the wrinkles of the fabric hugging her body. With her wide smile, she appears to revel in her movement and freedom.

For Stieglitz, these joyous photographs marked a breakthrough. Made with a handheld camera rather than his usual large-format, tripod-based camera, they demonstrated his ability to capture the spirit of a moment with minimal means. The photographs also opened the door to using Lake George’s casual life as material for Stieglitz’s serious artistic ambitions.

This photograph is part of the Alfred Stieglitz Key Set, the largest, most complete, and most important collection of photographs by Stieglitz in existence. Georgia O’Keeffe gave the Key Set of 1,642 photographs to the National Gallery of Art in 1949 and 1980.

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