Mary Learns to Walk

dc.contributor.authorEdward Steichen (1879-1973)
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-16T16:34:24Z
dc.date.available2022-07-16T16:34:24Z
dc.descriptionA "pictorial" photograph, hand-manipulated during the printing process, this is one of a series Steichen made of his wife and daughter at Huntington, Long Island. This image, or a close variant, was published in Camera Work in 1913. Chijo Takeda, a Willamette University art major who studied this work, argues that it was Steichen's studio prototype from which he made copy photographs for exhibition. On this prototype, Steichen supplemented the image with handmade marks and abrasions to suggest highlights and "painterly" artistic passages. Certain areas are shaded with pencil, and these apparently also represent Steichen's working of the print as a unique, expressive original. He also signed and dated the picture in pencil. Takeda argues that this hand-worked prototype then became the subject of subsequent photographs, copies that were printed for exhibition. If this thesis is correct, the image before you is rare surviving evidence of Steichen's creative process.
dc.description.sponsorshipGift of Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh
dc.format.extent16.25" x 12.5"
dc.format.mediumPhotograph
dc.format.mediumGum bichromate photograph
dc.identifier.otherSPG89.01
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10177/20408
dc.relation.ispartofHallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem Oregon
dc.relation.ispartofAmerican Art Collection
dc.rightsFor use information see: http://www.willamette.edu/arts/hfma/collections/copyright.html
dc.titleMary Learns to Walk
dspace.iiif.enabledTRUE
iiif.canvas.namingImage
local.cultureNorth American / United States
local.mastercopyHfmoaVolume29/SPG89-01-0.jpg

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