Spring Showers, the Coach

Alfred Stieglitz

1899–1900 · Platinum print · Photographs

When he made this photograph, Stieglitz was vice president of the Camera Club of New York and editor of the club's journal, where he reproduced this image. Like his fellow Pictorialists, Stieglitz often emulated Whistler's delicate tonal effects by photographing in rain and snow. The then-current vogue for things Japanese is evident in the paper mount of this little picture, a contact print from the small negative made by a hand camera, Stieglitz's preferred tool for capturing movement in the streets. In 1913 Stieglitz made some of his early photographs into enlarged gravures, such as the one hanging to the right. It was probably when selecting the works for enlargement that Stieglitz gave this print to Marie Rapp, his secretary and assistant at his gallery. Almost certainly unique, this diminutive print preserves the original, surprisingly precious, aspect of works we have come to regard-from their later incarnations-as protomodern.

Artist

Alfred Stieglitz

Date

1899–1900

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005