Passing Steamer

Paul Haviland French, active America

1910

Not on view

The son of a well-off china manufacturer in Limoges, Haviland encountered Alfred Stieglitz's Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in 1908. He soon contributed articles to and published photographs in Stieglitz's journal Camera Work (and acted as the gallery's secretary at one point), even bankrolling the gallery's three-year lease for Stieglitz when the rent was raised. In 1915 he started-with the Mexican-born caricaturist and gallerist Marius de Zayas and the journalist Agnes Ernest Meyer-a new magazine called 291, named for Stieglitz's gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue. This image appeared as a photogravure in a 1912 issue of Camera Work. While the soft focus and platinum printing are traces of the waning Pictorialist style, the unexpected vantage point and stark design made Passing Steamer a harbinger of things to come.

Artwork Details

Title: Passing Steamer
Artist: Paul Haviland (French, active America, 1880–1950)
Date: 1910
Medium: Platinum print
Dimensions: Image: 16.2 x 20.3 cm (6 3/8 x 8 in.)
Mount: 40.8 x 33.8 cm (16 1/16 x 13 5/16 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 2005
Object Number: 2005.100.710
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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