Gertrude Käsebier 1852-1934

platinum print, mounted along the top edge only to thin off-white board, inscribed 'The Angelus' by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, mounted again to thin gray board, signed and titled by the photographer in pencil on the secondary mount, matted, 1899

The photographer to Charles Fox, Broomhall, Pennsylvania

Private collection

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Other prints of this image:

Camera Notes, Vol. 4, No, 1, July 1900, frontispiece

Camera Work Number 1, pl. II

William Innes Homer, A Pictorial Heritage: The Photographs of Gertrude Käsebier (University of Delaware and the Delaware Art Museum, 1979, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 19

Barbara L. Michaels, Gertrude Käsebier: The Photographer and Her Photographs (New York, 1992), p. 53

Christian A. Peterson, Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Notes (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 52

William Innes Homer, Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession (Manchester, New Hampshire: The Currier Gallery of Art, 1983, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 34

William Innes Homer and Catherine Johnson, Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession 1902 (New York, 2002), unpaginated

Marianne Fulton Margolis, Camera Work: A Pictorial Guide (New York, 1978), p. 1

Peter Galassi, American Photography, 1890-1965, from The Museum of Modern Art (The Museum of Modern Art, 1995, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 84

This lush, early platinum print sets forth a wonderful array of subtly shifting tones. On the photographer's original double mount, and with her stylized title and signature, this print's presentation is wholly appropriate for an exhibition print made in the early years of the twentieth century. The print is in very good condition. It has undergone conservation and a treatment report is available from the Sotheby's Photographs Department upon request. When the print is examined very closely it can be seen that losses to the upper corners have been skillfully repaired and in-painted. There is very minor wear on the lower right edge that has resulted in some chipping in the emulsion. None of these issues is obtrusive, nor have a serious impact on the print's overwhelmingly fine appearance. An examination of the primary mount beneath the photograph shows that the portion of the mount exposed to light has become over the years very slightly sunned. The secondary gray mount has some minor staining at the lower edge and on the upper left edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

From its debut at the Philadelphia Salon exhibition in 1899, The Manger became one of Käsebier's best known and highly regarded photographs.  Made in the summer of that year in the stable at Long Meadow, her Newport, Rhode-Island, cottage, The Manger is among the most accomplished of Käsebier's many depictions of motherhood. The model for the photograph is Käsebier's friend, the illustrator Frances Delehanty.  She is clothed in layers of diaphanous fabric that may have belonged to photographer F. Holland Day, a visitor to Long Meadow that summer, who had come equipped with a trunk of costume clothing. 

In a lesser photographer's hands this scene could well have become a conventionally sentimental cliché.  Yet Käsebier's expert handling of the light, which streams softly into the scene from above, and her restrained approach to the subject matter - to say nothing of the masterful quality of the printing - set this image apart from much of the Pictorial photography of the time. 

The Manger was heralded at the 1899 Philadelphia Salon, and Alfred Stieglitz stated that it was 'generally considered the gem' of the exhibition (Barbara Michaels, Gertrude Kasebier: The Photographer and her Photographs, p. 61).  In the fall of that year, Käsebier sold a print of the image to the English actress, Ellen Terry, for one hundred dollars, an astonishing sum at a time when photography's status as a fine art was far from assured.  Stieglitz himself thought highly enough of the picture to include it in Camera Notes, and again in the very first issue of Camera Work, where it is illustrated in photogravure as the second plate.  Two appreciations of Käsebier's work also appear in this issue: one by fellow photographer, Frances Benjamin Johnson, and the other by critic Charles H. Caffin.  Caffin singled out The Manger for praise, lauding its depiction of 'figures of touching refinement in rude surroundings, irradiated with a soft flood of light that fills the place with heaven and surrounds the figures with divinity' (Camera Work Number 1, p. 16).   Stieglitz also included The Manger in his American Pictorial Photography, Series II, portfolio (New York: Publication Committee, Camera Club, 1901), along with Blessed Art Thou Among Women.

The Manger was widely exhibited in the first decade of the 20^th century.  Most notably, it was included in the selection of twenty-two Käsebier photographs shown at the landmark International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo in 1910.  This exhibition, organized by Stieglitz, was regarded at the time as the definitive statement on the art of photography as it was currently practiced.  Once again, The Manger was singled out for special attention when the Albright purchased Käsebier's print of the image after the exhibition closed.

The print of The Manger offered here was originally acquired from Käsebier by the photographer Charles Fox, who had studied under her.