Professor Werner, 1895, printed 1895/1896

Key Set Entry

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Remarks

Adolph Werner, Hedwig Stieglitz’s cousin, was born in Frankfurt and immigrated to America in 1850; he became a professor of German Language and Literature at the City College of New York. Werner encouraged Stieglitz to attend City College in 1879 and later to study in Germany.

Noting that many amateurs blamed their unsuccessful portraits on a lack of a “suitable studio,” Stieglitz wrote an article in 1898 using this photograph and Key Set number 248 to demonstrate how “an underexposed cluster of trees, thickly covered with green leaves” could serve as a natural backdrop (“A Natural Background for Out-of-Door Portraiture,” The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1898 [New York, 1897], 210–211).

Other Collections

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

Collection of Richard and Ronay Menschel [gelatin silver]

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 83.85.1

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 2016.101.422

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:

1898, New York, American Institute (no. 53, as Professor W., bronze medal)
1899, New York (no. 61, as Portrait of Prof. W., 1896, platinum direct)

Lifetime Publications

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

Alfred Stieglitz, “A Natural Background for Out-of-Door Portraiture,” The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1898 (New York, 1897): opp. 211 (ill., Open-Air Portrait)

M. [F. Matthies-Masuren], “Alfred Stieglitz—New York,” Photographisches Centralblatt 4 (December 1898): 429 (ill., untitled)

Inscription

by Alfred Stieglitz, on interleaving tissue, upper right, in graphite: "Prof. Werner." [underlined] / 1895.

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Bibliography

2002

Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 247.

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