Portrait (Miss N)
Artist
Gertrude Käsebier
(American, 1852 - 1934)
Dateca. 1902
MediumPhotogravure
DimensionsImage: 7 13/16 × 5 13/16 inches (19.84 × 14.76 cm)
Sheet: 11 15/16 × 8 5/16 inches (30.32 × 21.11 cm)
Mount: 11 15/16 × 8 5/16 inches (30.32 × 21.11 cm)
Sheet: 11 15/16 × 8 5/16 inches (30.32 × 21.11 cm)
Mount: 11 15/16 × 8 5/16 inches (30.32 × 21.11 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.3225
Signednone
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a girl with hair in ringlets looking at the viewer. She is holding a small pitcher and wearing an off-the-shoulder dress. From 'Camera Work', issue #1, January 1903.Exhibition HistoryA View of Her Own: Images of Women by Women Artists. Grinnell College, Grinelle, IA, October 2-31, 1987, no cat.
Selections from the Hallmark Photographic Collection. Highland Community College, Highland, KS, October 19 - November 11, 1993, no cat.
In the Public Eye: Photography and Fame. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 8 - June 15, 2008, no cat.
World War I and the Rise of Modernism. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 9 – October 18, 2015, no cat.
Evelyn Nesbit (1884-1967), a stage actress and renowned beauty, had a storied and notorious life. Her longtime affair with acclaimed architect Stanford White--begun when they were 16 and 47, respectively--ended when Nesbit's husband, Harry Thaw, murdered White. The lurid aftermath was widely described as "the trial of the century."
These portraits were made by two of the most respected photographic artists of the day. Eickemeyer's image exemplifies Nesbit's double identity: she is at once herself and her stage role, the Tired Butterfly. To the public, one had become indistinguishable from the other. Käsebier's portrait is also multi-layered in its symbolism: Nesbit here embodies the qualities of both youthful innocence and the femme-fatale, characteristic of turn-of-the century symbolist depictions of womanhood.
These portraits were made by two of the most respected photographic artists of the day. Eickemeyer's image exemplifies Nesbit's double identity: she is at once herself and her stage role, the Tired Butterfly. To the public, one had become indistinguishable from the other. Käsebier's portrait is also multi-layered in its symbolism: Nesbit here embodies the qualities of both youthful innocence and the femme-fatale, characteristic of turn-of-the century symbolist depictions of womanhood.
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