Crow's Feather and Apple

1924

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

A large, smooth apple with a shiny surface is placed on a flat surface with a large, dark feather inserted into its top. The image is in grayscale, providing a monochromatic palette with various shades of grey, black, and white. The apple is positioned in the bottom center of the image, while the feather extends upward, almost reaching the top edge of the frame, creating a vertical composition. The background is a plain, lightly textured surface.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 11 × 5.3 cm (4 5/16 × 2 1/16 in.)
    mount: 34.2 × 27.5 cm (13 7/16 × 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.618

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    207C

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more
  • Key Set Number

    1039

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. 2, cat. 1039.

Inscriptions

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: 207 C

Wikidata ID

Q64035309

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

“But there is still old Crow’s Feather—ever jabbed into that reddest of round red apples” (Stieglitz to Ida O’Keeffe, 3 November 1924, YCAL).

Throughout his correspondence with Ida O’Keeffe in the fall of 1924, Stieglitz jokingly referred to himself as “Old Crow’s Feather” and to her as “Little Red Apple,” derived from the Ida Red variety of apple.

Two variant images of this photograph are at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven (YCAL MSS 85, box 148, folder 2747, 1980.161.6 and 1980.161.9), one inscribed: For Ida’s birthday / Oct. 23—1924 / A Souvenir of The Hill / at Lake George / “The Porch that is Ida.” / From the Crow’s Feather. The other is inscribed: Photographed by Order / of Lady Ida—/ Lake George—/ Oct. 12—1924 / “The Day After”—/ To Ida O’Keeffe—/ Her birthday—October 23—1924 / From her “Crow’s Feather.”


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