Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands
1918
Medium
palladium print
Dimensions
image: 24 x 18.9 cm (9 7/16 x 7 7/16 in.) sheet: 24.6 x 20.1 cm (9 11/16 x 7 15/16 in.) mat: 50.8 x 38.2 cm (20 x 15 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1980.70.40
Art Historical Context
In 1918, pioneering photographer Alfred Stieglitz captured the elegant, expressive hands of Georgia O'Keeffe in this intimate palladium print, a medium prized for its subtle tonal gradations and archival permanence. Measuring about 9½ x 7½ inches, the image exemplifies Stieglitz's mastery of "straight photography," where he presented the subject with unmanipulated clarity, free from the soft-focus effects of earlier Pictorialism. As a founder of the Photo-Secession movement, Stieglitz championed photography as fine art, and this work marks an early moment in his deep personal and artistic part...
About the Artist
Alfred Stieglitz · 1864–1946
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a pioneering American photographer, art dealer, publisher, and advocate for the Modernist movement who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Stieglitz spent his formative years studying mechanical engineering in Berlin, where he discovered photography in ...