GERTRUDE KA
̈
SEBIER
American
Gertrude Stanton Ka ̈sebier was one of the leading
photographers of the early years of the twentieth
century, a fact made more remarkable by her gen-
der. At a time when women were often held back
from artistic aspirations, Ka ̈sebier was remarkably
successful, although her goal of being an artist aside
was initially put aside to marry and raise a family.
One indication of the high esteem in which her work
was held was its being featured in the inaugural issue
of the Photo-Secession journal,Camera Work,in
January 1903, by the renowned photographer
Alfred Stieglitz. Even before this, Stieglitz wrote in
his journal,Camera Notes, that Ka ̈sebier was ‘‘the
leading portrait photographer in this country [Uni-
ted States].’’ She is particularly known for her por-
traits, including those of mothers and children as
featured on a U.S. postal stamp in the ‘‘Masters of
Photography’’ series in 2002.
Gertrude Stanton was born 18 May 1852, to a
Quaker family in Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Her par-
ents, like thousands of Americans in the mid-nine-
teenth century, crossed the plains in a covered wagon.
After an eight-year stay in Iowa, John Stanton, seeing
opportunity in the Gold Rush, established a saw mill
in Eureka Gulch, Colorado Territory, but his death
in 1864 left his wife Muncy, Gertrude, and son
Charles to fend for themselves. The family moved
back to New York City where Muncy Stanton later
operated a boarding house, and Gertrude was to
meet her future husband, Eduard Ka ̈sebier.
As a child, Ka ̈sebier showed artistic inclinations,
but they were never encouraged, and she had no
formal training. She credited her grandmother as
having been an inspiration to her with her artistry in
patchwork quilts, and said her first primer with its
colorful pictures caused her to want to be a painter.
Gertrude attended the Moravian Seminary for
Women in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, living with
her maternal grandmother, but left to marry Ed-
uard Ka ̈sebier in 1874 on her 22nd birthday. Short-
ly after her marriage, Ka ̈sebier had applied to
Cooper Union, an art school in New York City,
but was turned down. When she attended the Pratt
Institute in Brooklyn after her children were grown
in the late 1880s photography was not then consid-
ered art, and Ka ̈sebier thus received no academic
training in the medium.
Her first success with photography was through
a competition sponsored byThe Monthly Illustra-
torin 1892. She won a $50.00 prize, but gave the
money away because, according to William lnnes
Homer, ‘‘her teachers chastised her for taking the
photographic medium seriously, and, in deference
to their views, she came to believe she had done
something wrong....’’
In 1893, she was the chaperone of an art class (as
she was likely the oldest student) that went to study
en plein airat an art colony in Crdcie-en-Brie, a
provincial village in France. On a rainy day when
she could not paint from nature, she turned to her
camera to do indoor portraiture. Thereafter Ka ̈seb-
ier focused intently on photography, studying with
a chemist in Germany, who helped her with the
technical aspects. Eventually returning to Brook-
lyn, Ka ̈sebier apprenticed herself to photographer
Samuel Lifshey where she learned the business
aspects of photography.
Ka ̈sebier made a concerted effort to borrow
poses and techniques from antique portraits, and
consciously set out to elevate photographic portrai-
ture to the status of fine art. In his 1903 essay in
Camera Work, ‘‘Mrs Ka ̈sebier’s work—An Appre-
ciation,’’ noted art historian and critic Charles H.
Caffin extolled the virtues of her work, profuse in
regard to the merits of her artistic portraits, which
he believed were especially sensitive in regard to the
character of the sitter. Although Ka ̈sebier claimed
to have psychic powers, in fact she worked extre-
mely hard to achieve this quality, spending several
hours with each sitter until she felt she knew him or
her well enough for the likeness to be a biography.
As her friend, the writer Mary Fanton Roberts
[Giles Edgerton] explained, ‘‘Her real work is
done with the sitter—not in the dark room.’’ She
was against retouching because she believed it
detracted from the character of the sitter, and she
only did it when pressure was applied by her client.
Ka ̈sebier claimed retouching made ‘‘people look
like peeled onions.’’
She established her first portrait studio at 273
Fifth Avenue in New York in 1897, and in 1898
opened a summer studio at a house known as LongKA ̈SEBIER, GERTRUDE