Portrait—K.N.R., No. 1 or Songs of the Sky C1
1923
Artist, American, 1864 - 1946
Artwork overview
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Medium
gelatin silver print
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
image: 11.5 x 9 cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.)
sheet: 12.7 x 10.1 cm (5 x 4 in.)
mount: 34 x 27.5 cm (13 3/8 x 10 13/16 in.) -
Accession
1949.3.863
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Stieglitz Estate Number
158D
Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition
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Key Set Number
876
Alfred Stieglitz
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Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.
Associated Names
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.
Inscriptions
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
Wikidata ID
Q64035927
Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data
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.)