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Dimensions: measurements note 11 1/4 by 9 in. (28.6 by 22.9 cm.)

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Provenance: Collection of Graham NashSotheby's New York, Photographs from the Collection of Graham Nash, 25 April 1990, Sale 6003, Lot 107Acquired by the present owner from the above

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Literature: Other prints of this image:Ulrich Knapp, Heinrich Kühn: Photographien (Salzburg, 1988), pl. 12Photography: The First Eighty Years (London: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., 1976), pl. 411 Lunn Gallery/Graphics International Ltd., Catalogue 6: Photo-Secession (Washington, D. C., 1977), pl. 146

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Notes: The Austrian Pictorialist Heinrich Kühn was one of the foremost European members of the Photo-Secession. As a crusader for photography's acceptance as fine art and as an organizer of exhibitions, he played a role on the continent equal to that of Alfred Stieglitz in America. His keen interest in photographic printing techniques led him to experiment with the complex gum-bichromate process, originally popularized by Frenchman Robert Demachy. Along with fellow Austrians Han Watzek and Hugo Henneberg, Kühn elaborated on the process to make it a more expressive tool for the Pictorial photographer. Kühn became a master of the process, as evidenced by the magnetic portrait of Edward Steichen offered here. Kühn's adept handling of the print's vast dark areas accentuates the impact of Steichen's gaze as he peers over his folded hands and regards the camera directly. In Steichen, Kühn found an ideal subject for a portrait sitting. Self-portraiture had been a component of Steichen's own work from the very early days of his work in photography, and would continue to be so throughout his career. Steichen was one of few photographers as confident in front of the camera as behind it. In Kühn's portrait, Steichen's piercing eyes suggest the intensity of his own artistic vision. With its fine print quality and its moody and dramatic portrayal of the sitter's character, Kühn's image of Steichen--like Clarence White's portrait of Alfred Stieglitz (Lot 9) and Steichen's portraits of Rodin (Lot 14) and G. F. Watts (Lot 112)--is an archetypal Pictorialist portrait.