Hour of Prayer, 1894, printed 1894/1895

Key Set Entry

• prev
• 218 of 1642 from the Alfred Stieglitz Key Set
• next

Related Key Set Photographs

Remarks

In 1896 The American Amateur Photographer noted that the exhibition of pictorial photographs at the 1895 Brussels exhibition was “a revelation to the art interested public as well as to the artists themselves. The excellence of the work exhibited seems to have suggested to the Director of the Museum of Fine Arts the advisability of establishing a National Collection of Pictorial Photographs, and for this purpose an annual appropriation has been applied for from the Government. . . . Amongst the first pictures chosen for this honor is our editor’s, ‘Scurrying Home’” (“Notes,” The American Amateur Photographer 8 [January 1896], 26).

For Stieglitz’s description of Katwijk, where this view was made, see Key Set number 206.

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:

1895, London, R.P.S. (no. 269, as Scurrying Home, photogravure, royal medal)
1895, London, Salon (no. 268, as Scurrying Home)
1895, Brussels (as Rentrée à la Maison)
1896, Paris (no. 574, as L’Heure de la prière, photogravure)
1896, Cardiff (as Scurrying Home, champion shield and gold medal)
1896, Berlin  (as Heimweg, sepia)
1896, Hamburg (no. 472, as Scurrying Home)
1896, Clifton (as Scurrying Home)
1896, Syracuse (no. 249, as Scurrying Home)
1897, London, R.P.S. (no. 440, as Scurrying Home, lantern slide)
1898, New York, Camera Club (no. 13, as Scurrying Home)
1898, New York, American Institute (no. 148, as Scurrying Home, gold medal)
1898, Philadelphia (no. 195, as Scurrying Home)
1899, New York (no. 53, as Scurrying Home, 1894–1895, carbon enlargement)
1900, Chicago (no. 109, as Scurrying Home)
1900, Newark (no. 165, as Scurrying Home, 1894)
1901, Glasgow (no. 129, as Scurrying Home)
1902, New York (no. 129, as Scurrying Home, 1894)
1902, Turin (no. 66, as Correndo a casa)
1910, Buffalo (no. 424, as Scurrying Home, 1894, photogravure)
1913, New York (no. 6, as Scurrying Home, 1894)
1921, New York (no. 11, as Scurrying Home, 1894)
1944, Philadelphia (no. 11, as Scurrying Home, 1894. photogravure)

Lifetime Publications

A reproduction of this work appeared in the following publication(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

The Photographic Times 26 (August 1895): opp. 65 (ill., Going to Prayers, photogravure)

Pictorial Photographs: A Record of the Photographic Salon of 1895 (London, 1895): unnumbered (ill., as Scurrying Home)

Fortieth Annual Exhibition [exh. cat, Royal Photographic Society] (London, 1895): unpaginated

Photograms of the Year (London, 1895): 83 (ill., Scurrying Home)

“Alfred Stieglitz and His Latest Work,” The Photographic Times 28:4 (April 1896): 168 (ill., Scurrying Home)

“Troisième Exposition d’Art Photographique du Photo-Club de Paris,” Bulletin du Photo-Club de Paris (July 1896): 243 (ill., untitled)

Franz Goerke, Nach der Natur (Berlin, 1896): pl. 30 (ill., Nach Hause, photogravure)

Marmaduke Humphrey, “Triumphs in Amateur Photography,” Godey’s Magazine 135 (December 1897): 582 (ill., Scurrying Home)

Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies (New York, 1897): unnumbered (ill., Scurrying Home)

Statts-Zeitung 30 (January 1898): 17 (ill., Auf Dem Heimwege)

Photographisches Centralblatt 4 (December 1898): between 442 and 443 (ill., Heimkehr)

“Photographs from the Camera Club Exhibition,” New-York Tribune (14 May 1899): illustrated supplement, 10 (ill., Scurrying Home—Katwyk Scene)

Theodore Dreiser, “A Master of Photography,” Success Magazine 2 (10 June 1899): 471 (ill., Scurrying Home)

Camera Notes 3:2 (October 1899): opp. 72 (ill., Scurrying Home, photogravure)

“Chicago’s Coming Photographic Salon,” The [Chicago] Sunday Times Herald (25 March 1900): section 4, 7 (ill., Going to Church)

Chicago Photographic Salon of 1900 [exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago] (Chicago, 1900): unpaginated (ill., Scurrying Home)

Photographische Rundschau 14:5 (May 1900): between 96 and 97 (ill., Scurrying Home, photogravure)

Henry G. Abbott, “Pertinent Inquiries from Chicago,” Photo Era 4:6 (June 1900): 177 (ill., Scurrying Home)

Juan C. Abel, “Pictorial Photography: No. 2—The Religious Statement,” The Delineator 59: 4 (April 1902): 643 (ill., The Hour of Prayer, Katwyk, Holland)

Charles H. Caffin, “The New Photography,” Munsey’s Magazine 27 (August 1902): 729 (ill., Scurrying Home)

Sadakichi Hartmann, “The Photo-Secession. A New Pictorial Movement,” The Craftsman 6:1 (April 1904): 31 (ill., Scurrying Homeward)

Sadakichi Hartmann, Landscape and Figure Composition (New York, 1910): 107, fig. 114 (ill., Scurrying Homeward)

Sidney Allan [Sadakichi Hatmann], “Figure Composition,” The Photographic Times 42 (March 1910): 99 (ill., Scurrying Homeward)

Inscription

by Alfred Stieglitz, lower left, in graphite: Hour of Prayer; lower right: 1894 / Alfred Stieglitz; on backing board, upper center on Alfred Stieglitz Collection label, in black ink: Alfred Stieglitz / Gravure (1894) Scurrying / Home / Made in 1894 in Katwyk, Holland. / Rec'd "Royal" Medal in London in / 1895. Shown all over the world. / Picked print. Shown at the / Stieglitz Exh. Photo-Secession / 1913; upper center, An American Place stamp; upper right, Philadelphia Museum of Art label

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Exhibition History

1992

Stieglitz in the Darkroom, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 4, 1992–February 14, 1993

Bibliography

1946

Engelhard, Georgia. "The Face of Alfred Stieglitz." Popular Photography 19 (September 1946): 120.

1947

Engelhard, Georgia. "Alfred Stieglitz: 'Father of Modern Photography.'" The Camera 69 (June 1947): 52.

2002

Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 218.

Related Content