Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands
1918
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 23.8 x 17.8 cm (9 3/8 x 7 in.) sheet: 25.2 x 20.1 cm (9 15/16 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
1980.70.121
Art Historical Context
In 1918, pioneering photographer Alfred Stiegl captured *Georgia O'KeeffeHands*, a intimate gelatin silver print that showcases the elegant, expressive hands of his future wife and muse, Georgia O'Keeffe. This 9 3/8 x 7-inch image, now housed in the National Gallery of Art's Stieglitz Collection exemplifies Stieglitz's shift toward modernist photography. As founder of Gallery 291 in New York, he championed "straight photography"—unmanipulated images that emphasized pure form, light, and texture over pictorialist softness—helping elevate photography to fine art. The photograph emerged at a piv...
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 ...