Edward Steichen

palladium print, titled and dated in pencil, inscribed 'Please return to Mr. Edward Steichen, Museum of Modern Art' by Grace M. Mayer in red pencil, a Condé Nast use stamp, and reduction notations in pencil and crayon on the reverse, 1921

The family of the photographer

Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1970

Vanity Fair, June 1923, p. 55 (this print), there captioned 'Wind Fire: A Photograph by Edward Steichen.  The following lines were written by Carl Sandburg on first seeing this portrait—made by Edward Steichen, at Athens—of one of the dancers who were in Greece at the time with Isadora Duncan: ''Goat girl caught in the brambles, deerfoot or fox-head, ankles and hair of feeders of the wind, let all the covering burn, let all stopping a naked plunger from plunging naked, let it all burn in this wind fire, let the fire have it in a fast crunch and a flash.'''

Vogue, January 1938, p. 40 (this print), there captioned, '''Wind Fire,'' Strange and Symbolic,' in the article 'Steichen' by Margaret Case Harriman

Other prints of this image:

Steichen the Photographer (The Museum of Modern Art, 1961), p. 43

Todd Brandow and William A. Ewing, Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography (New York and London, 2007), pl. 89

Joanna Steichen, Steichen's Legacy (New York, 2000), pl. 193

This lushly-toned palladium print is on heavy double-weight paper and has a matte surface. As is typical of palladium prints, the tones are a soft reddish-brown. The image itself is in excellent condition. When examined in raking light, some unobtrusive original retouching can be seen. There are crop marks in pencil and red crayon in the margins. The black line that passes across the very top edge of the image appears to be in the negative and not on the print itself, and is cropped out in all of the extant illustrations of the image. The upper right corner appears to have a slightly more glossy surface than the surrounding area, and this may be due to rubbing. The margins are very lightly soiled, and the margin corners are worn and slightly rounded. None of these issues detracts from the overall impressive appearance of this bravura palladium print.
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Steichen made this photograph on the Acropolis in 1921, while on an impromptu vacation in the company of the legendary modern dancer Isadora Duncan and her young female pupils, frequently referred to as 'Isadorables.'  The model in this image is Thérèse Duncan, an adopted daughter of Isadora Duncan.  Born Thérèse Kruger in Dresden, Germany, she was spotted by Duncan performing in a school Christmas pageant.  Duncan was impressed by the young girl's talent and recruited Thérèse as a student.  Thérèse first studied at Duncan's school for dance in Grunewald and then toured with her company in the United States in the 1910s.  She left the company in 1922, not long after posing for Steichen on the windblown summit of the Acropolis.     

The years directly after World War One were a period of transition for Edward Steichen.  He had reached preeminence in the photography world of the early 20^th century for his bravura Pictorialist studies, had earned the accolades of Alfred Stieglitz, and had exhibited his work internationally.  During the war he became engaged with photography in an entirely different way, working as an aerial reconnaissance photographer for the United States military.  By his own account, the war years had a scorching effect on Steichen, and after he returned to his home in Voulangis, he found he had to rebuild himself from scratch as a creative artist.  His initial photographic experiments of this time involved semi-abstract compositions with philosophical titles (such as Diagram of Doom and Time-Space Continuum), as well as a series of photographs of flowers and fruits from his beloved garden.  A trip to Venice during this period threw him together, by chance, with Isadora Duncan and her pupils.  Duncan, whose choreography was heavily inspired by ancient Grecian art, insisted that Steichen accompany them on a trip to Athens.  One of the enticements for Steichen was the promised opportunity to photograph Duncan in a most appropriate setting: the Parthenon. 

As it happened, Duncan was too overwhelmed by the massive ancient structure to be entirely comfortable as a photographic subject, and she offered Steichen only a few static poses.  Although these photographs are now justifiably classic works within Steichen's oeuvre, they show none of the graceful movement for which Duncan was renowned.  The lively Thérèse, however, provided Steichen with an altogether different photographic subject.  In A Life in Photography, Steichen recounts how he chased the lithesome dancer around the Acropolis, photographing her in motion, sometimes even losing sight of her as she danced through the ruins.  Wind Fire is the definitive image from this series.  In Steichen's vast and diverse body of work, Wind Fire is one of the only images in which movement – in the curving form of Thérèse's body, and in her wind-whipped garments – plays such a crucial and compelling role.  It is one of the most joyfully evocative dance-related images in photography.  It also possesses the undeniable glamour that would become the hallmark of the magazine work Steichen would begin for Condé Nast the following year. 

Thérèse, who later used the name Maria-Thérèse Duncan, continued to dance through the 1930s, founding the Helcioniades dance company.  She renewed her activity as a performer in the 1950s, and founded the Isadora Duncan International Institute in Mount Kisco in 1977, as well as its performing company, the Marie-Thérèse Heritage Group.