Portrait—K.N.R., No. 1 or Songs of the Sky C1, 1923

Key Set Entry

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Remarks

On 2 September 1923 Stieglitz wrote to Sherwood Anderson that he had “been busy with clouds and clouds and tree tops. A small camera. To see what ‘bigness’ might be coaxed out of small areas” (YCAL and Newberry Library).

“So, one of the clouds is a portrait of me! How very exciting! I hope it is winged—not too ominous—& is turned to the light. Tonight I should like a cloud to float upon—to float very far away—in a space where feeling and thought and—most of all—Being, are pure and clear” (Katharine Rhoades to Stieglitz, 21 December 1923, YCAL).

In 1924 this photograph and Key Set numbers 877–881 were exhibited at the Anderson Galleries as nos. 14–19, Portrait—K. N. R. Although mistakenly referred to as Songs of the Sky and Trees (also shown in 1924), they match the description published in The New York Times (9 March 1924, section 8, 10) review of this exhibition: “‘Songs of the Sky and Trees’ is a portrait of a friend of this artist scientist and philosopher, expressed through sky and tree, a tree that dances and sparkles in the first plates becoming in the last print a thing of dignity and completeness.” A print of Key Set number 878 at Vassar College's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is inscribed, “K. N. R. No. 3 Lake George.”

Other Collections

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

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, YCAL MSS 85, box 148, folder 2764 (inscribed [to Selma Stieglitz Schubart]: Love from the Hill—G. & I hope / you’ll have a good trip & get / some real “rest.”—Drop us an occasional card & let us / know how you are. If you see any one I know remember me / to them. I am forgetting no one in spite of Silences.—/ Our love.—Much from me / Al / L.G.—Sept.—1923)

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:

1924, New York (nos. 14–19, as Portrait—K. N. R.)

Inscription

by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite, circled: C1 [1 in subscript]

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: 158-D

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Exhibition History

2016

This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Reimagining Representation in American Art, 1912–Today, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, June 24–October 17, 2016

Bibliography

2002

Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 2, cat. 876.

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