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ALFRED STIEGLITZ (American, 1864-1946) GEORGIA ENGELHARD gelatin silver print mounted on board 91...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:150,000.00 - 200,000.00 USD
ALFRED STIEGLITZ (American, 1864-1946) GEORGIA ENGELHARD gelatin silver print mounted on board 91...
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
(American, 1864-1946)
GEORGIA ENGELHARD
gelatin silver print mounted on board
91?8 x 71?2 in. (23.2 x 19.1 cm)
mount: 20 x 153?4 in. (50.8 x 40 cm)
1920
ESTIMATE: $150,000-200,000
PROVENANCE
From the artist to Georgia O’Keeffe
Private Collection
LITERATURE
Sarah Greenough, ALFRED STIEGLITZ: THE KEY SET, WASHINGTON, D.C., National Gallery of Art/Harry N. Abrams, NEW YORK, 2002, vol. I, p. 382, cat. no. 638 (illustrated)
By photographing apples on their own or held by sitters, Alfred Stieglitz imbued many of his pictures with a distinctly American symbolism. In this particular example, the fruit underscores the youthful beauty and fecundity of the young subject, Georgia Engelhard, a niece whom Stieglitz photographed on a number of occasions.
Engelhard often enjoyed a privileged place in Stieglitz’s household where she was referred to as “the Kid” or “Georgia Minor” to avoid confusion with Georgia O’Keeffe. As a child she often painted alongside O’Keeffe, and Stieglitz exhibited her drawings and watercolors at his 291 Gallery when she was only 10 years old. In her early twenties she won prizes for her equestrian skills in international competition and became an accomplished mountain climber, scaling many of the major peaks in the Rockies and the Alps.
Engelhard recalled the following about posing for her uncle: “I remember once when I was fourteen years old sitting on the very edge of a cottage window, bending over with an armful of apples clutched to my bosom as if I were just about to leap down. At best a difficult pose to hold even for a few minutes, but I had to do this for more than an hour with no respite until Stieglitz was satisfied that the light was right, that my pose and expression were right, in other words until all conditions were perfect” (Georgia Engelhard, “Alfred Stieglitz: Master Photographer,” AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY, vol. 39, no. 4, April 1945, p. 9).
This is one of only three prints known to exist. The two others are palladium prints: one in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the other resides in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.