A RARE AND IMPORTANT EARLY STIEGLITZ PORTRAIT ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864-1946) Portrait of Anson Randolph. Platinum print, the image measuring 7 1/2x4 1/2 inches (19.1x11.4 cm.). 1895
Provenance: Virginia Zabriskie, Zabriskie Gallery, New York
In an 1898 article on out-of-door portraiture for the American Annual of Photography, Alfred Stieglitz published this image as a full-page illustration, as did Charles Caffin, a leading critic of the day, who wrote in his 1901 book The Fine Art of Photography, "No picture has secured its author more deserved reputation than the Portrait of Mr. R. One need not to have known the subject to feel sure that it is a characteristic likeness of a most interesting personality; a man of mental power and tender qualities and, above all, of beautiful poise of character." Caffin goes on to describe in great detail the characteristics that make this image stand out.
Mr. Randolph lived next door to Stieglitz at Lake George. He owned a religious bookstore and was very uncomfortable having his photo taken. Eventually, the story goes, Stieglitz tricked Randolph into posing by pretending to use him to check the camera depth, catching him in a natural moment.
In her seminal work on the Stieglitz collection, Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set, Volume I (cat. no. 248, p. 146), Sarah Greenough lists the many publications of the day that reproduced the image as well as Caffin's description. Other than the print in the National Gallery, the only other original she cited was the Zabriskie print, the one offered here.
