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
Rights
Public Domain
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 partnership with O'Keeffe, whom he would marry in 1924. The photograph's close focus on O'Keeffe's hands—strong yet graceful—hints at her emerging identity as an artist, evoking themes of creation and vulnerability. Stieglitz produced over 300 portraits of her between 1918 and 1935, using hands as a recurring motif to convey emotion and form. Part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at the National Gallery of Art, this piece bridges personal intimacy with modernist innovation, inviting viewers to appreciate the quiet power in everyday anatomy. (198 words)
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 ...