Object Details
Artist
Edward Jean Steichen, 27 Mar 1879 - 25 Mar 1973
Sitter
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer, 2 Jan 1887 - 1 Sep 1970
Exhibition Label
Born New York City
Twenty-one-year-old Agnes Meyer sailed to Paris in 1908 to explore the city’s modern art scene. Daring and independent, she had already defied her parents’ traditional expectations by pursuing a journalism career. In Paris, she mingled with ultramodern painters at Gertrude Stein’s salon and befriended the sculptor Auguste Rodin while rebuffing his sexual advances. Her experiences laid the foundation for her later role as a major art collector and patron.
Meyer’s future husband commissioned this photograph. Her simple hairstyle, pale gown, and gleaming vase convey an impression of classical restraint and purity intended to offset his concerns about her incautious behavior.
After returning to the United States, Meyer cofounded an influential modernist journal and formed important collections of Post-Impressionist, Cubist, and Chinese art. With her friend Katharine Nash Rhoades (whose portrait hangs nearby), she helped establish the Freer Gallery of Art, now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
Nacida en la ciudad de Nueva York
Con 21 años, Agnes Meyer zarpó hacia París en 1908 para explorar la escena artística moderna de la ciudad. Atrevida e independiente, Meyer ya había desafiado las expectativas de sus padres al hacer carrera en el periodismo. En París se relacionó con pintores ultramodernos en el salón de Gertrude Stein y entabló amistad con el escultor Auguste Rodin a la vez que rechazaba sus avances sexuales. Sus experiencias fueron la base de su posterior gestión como gran coleccionista y mecenas de las artes.
El futuro esposo de Meyer encargó esta fotografía. El peinado sencillo, el traje de tono pálido y el destellante jarrón proyectan una impresión de sobriedad y pureza clásica, a fin de contrarrestar las inquietudes de él por la conducta arriesgada de ella.
Ya en Estados Unidos, Meyer cofundó una influyente revista modernista y reunió importantes colecciones de arte posimpresionista, cubista y chino. Con su amiga Katharine Nash Rhoades (cuyo retrato se expone cerca), ayudó a establecer la Galería de Arte Freer, hoy parte del Museo Nacional de Arte Asiático Smithsonian.
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; bequest of Katharine Graham
Date
1909
Object number
NPG.2001.84
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Type
Photograph
Medium
Platinum print
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 27.9 x 21.6cm (11 x 8 1/2")
Mat: 55.9 x 40.6cm (22 x 16")
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Topic
Interior
Container\Urn
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Female
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Social reformer
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Arts and Culture\Journalism and Media\Journalist
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Arts and Culture\Patron of the arts
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Arts and Culture\Journalism and Media\Journalist\Reporter
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Social Welfare and Reform\Philanthropist
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Political activist
Portrait
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npg_NPG.2001.84