Gertrude Stein
Artist/Maker
Imogen Cunningham
(American, 1883–1976)
Date1937
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 7/8 × 6 1/2 in. (20 × 16.5 cm)
Mount: 14 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. (36.8 × 29.2 cm)
Mount: 14 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. (36.8 × 29.2 cm)
Credit LineCharles F. Olney Fund
Object number1974.45
Status
On viewCunningham was a trailblazer for many subsequent photographers. In 1907, after completing her undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Washington, Cunningham studied photography in Dresden, inspired by Gertrude Käsebier. After meeting Käsebier in New York, Cunningham opened her first portrait studio in Seattle in 1910.
Her early work was in line with the reigning style of pictorialism, or painterly photography. When she moved to California in 1917, her oeuvre grew to encompass studies of plants as well as nudes in the 1920s, a time when that genre was considered the domain of men.
Working for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, Cunningham photographed artists, writers, and Hollywood entertainers. This portrait of the towering literary figure Gertrude Stein comes from that period. She often focused on her sitters’ hands, and here Stein’s raised hand seems to have a story to tell.
Exhibition History
Her early work was in line with the reigning style of pictorialism, or painterly photography. When she moved to California in 1917, her oeuvre grew to encompass studies of plants as well as nudes in the 1920s, a time when that genre was considered the domain of men.
Working for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, Cunningham photographed artists, writers, and Hollywood entertainers. This portrait of the towering literary figure Gertrude Stein comes from that period. She often focused on her sitters’ hands, and here Stein’s raised hand seems to have a story to tell.
Photography in the Collection: A Sesquicentennial Salute
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (December 13, 1988 - February 12, 1989 )
Facing the Camera: Selected Portrait Photographs from the Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 21, 1995 - March 9, 1995 )
Framed and Shot: Photographs from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (March 1, 2000 - May 30, 2000 )
Femme 'n isms, Part II: Flashpoints in Photography
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 2, 2024 - January 18, 2025 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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ca. 1854
1948–50
postmarked July 4, 1958
