ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864 1946) Portrait of Dorothy Norman

Sale 2436 - Lot 75

Price Realized: $ 20,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000

ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864-1946)
Portrait of Dorothy Norman. Silver print, the image measuring 3 3/8x2 1/2 inches (10.1x6.4 cm.), the mount 14 3/8x11 1/2 inches (36.5x29.2 cm.), with Norman's title and notations "Original of D.N. by Stieglitz - Printed by D.N. - 30s at his request," in pencil, and a Collection Dorothy Norman hand stamp, on mount verso. 1930-36

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Additional Details

From the Collection of Dorothy Norman; to New York Collectors Gilbert and Marian Seldes.

Dorothy Norman (1905-1997) met Alfred Stieglitz at his Intimate Gallery in 1927. Although they were each married, the two developed an intimate relationship, both as lovers and mentor and mentee, which lasted until Stieglitz's death in 1946. The older photographer and gallerist nurtured Norman as an image-maker, giving her a Graflex camera and making notes on her photographs. Norman pursued photography as a creative art form but was better known as a humanitarian, essayist and biographer of Stieglitz.

In the 1930s Norman, who was then in her twenties, was frequently a subject for Stieglitz, whose expressive portraits are artful depictions of a young woman discovering her self and love. In this study, Norman appears unguarded and open.

After Stieglitz's death, Norman promoted his work and emerged as a champion of liberal causes. She edited and published Twice a Year: A Semi-Annual Journal of Literature, the Arts and Civil Liberties between 1938 and 1948, and wrote a column, "A World to Live In" for the New York Post from 1942 to 1949.

Although several studies of Norman are reproduced in Sarah Greenough's publication Alfred Stieglitz, The Key Set, this image, which may be unique, is not among them.