Art Institute of Chicago

The Manger

Gertrude Käsebier

Date

1899

Medium

Platinum print

Culture

United States

Department

Photography and Media

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Married and the mother of three children, Gertrude Käsebier took up photography in her forties. She achieved success quickly: in 1898–99 Käsebier exhibited at the elite Philadelphia Photographic Salon, befriended the influential dealer and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, joined the Camera Club of New York, and opened her own studio. This photograph of a Nativity scene bolstered her reputation as a photographer: Stieglitz published it in his early journal Camera Notes and again in the opening issue of Camera Work , in which Käsebier was the featured artist. With its soft focus, rich tonality, deep emotional overtones, and classical source material, The Manger epitomizes the pictorialist aesthetic cultivated by fine art photographers of the period. Käsebier was praised for her heartfelt images of mothers and children, in which she created the appearance of unposed authenticity even with staged subjects. In this tender depiction, the model holds nothing more than a bundle of blankets.

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