Meadow in Newport, Rhode Island. There Ka ̈seb-
ier mingled freely with the wealthy and socially
connected, and she established some important pro-
fessional relationships. The photographer Baron de
Meyer admired her work and spent time with her;
the prominent Boston photographer F. Holland
Day went to visit, accompanied by Frances Lee,
who became one of Ka ̈sebier’s favorite models,
appearing in some of her most best-known pictures.
Ka ̈sebier also made a number of portraits of
Native Americans. The experiences she had had,
especially with the Sioux, as a youngster in Eureka
Gulch prepared her for this later photographic work.
When she undertook this work in the East, Native
Americans were not accessible to her so she wrote to
William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill) requesting
that he allow some of the ‘‘braves’’ from his Wild
West Show to be photographed by her. It is said that
one of the sitters was so frightened he covered him-
self with his blanket and Ka ̈sebier practically had to
trick him into a relaxed attitude. The resulting por-
trait isThe Red Man, circa 1898.
This work was included among the five photogra-
vures featured inCamera Work’sfirst issue, along
with complimentary articles by Caffin and Frances
Benjamin Johnson. Ka ̈sebier had been part of the
group dedicated to promoting photography to the
status of fine art that in 1902 formed the Photo-
Secession. However, the formal elements displayed
by Ka ̈sebier were characteristic of the painting
movement of the late nineteenth century known as
Symbolism: flatness of imagery, decorative pattern-
ing in the manner of Japanese prints (well illustrated
in her sensitive portrait of the celebrated Sioux acti-
vist and musician,Zitkala-Sa, 1898), simplicity of
composition, and overall harmony of design.
Ka ̈sebier worked primarily with platinum prints,
although she did begin using a gum bichromate process
in 1901. Her photographic debut had taken place in
1898 at the first Philadelphia Photographic Salon
where she exhibited ten works: portraits, studies related
to the mother-and-child theme, and one nude. The next
year she was appointed to the jury. It was in this salon
that she exhibited a Madonna and child, which she
calledThe Manger; it sold for $100.00, setting a record
for the highest price paid for an art photograph at that
time. Her work in a similar spirit,Blessed Art Thou
Among Women, the image that subsequently appeared
a postage stamp, is perhaps her best-known. One of the
most prestigious exhibition spaces in which her work
was shown was the Little Galleries of the Photo-Seces-
sion, popularly referred to as 291 (Fifth Avenue
address), owned and operated by Alfred Stieglitz,
with whom she had a close but tempestuous relation-
ship. Ka ̈sebier was elected to membership in both the
prestigious Camera Club (1900) in New York and The
Linked Ring (1900) in London. Also in 1900, photo-
grapher Clarence H. White recognized her as ‘‘the
foremost professional photographer in America.’’ She
had won numerous awards and had exhibited through-
out the United States, Europe, and South America. By
1910, the year of her husband’s death, the most fruitful
period of Ka ̈sebier’s photography had passed, as taste
shifted away from Pictorialism. She moved from her
home in Oceanside, Long Island, to 342 West Seventy-
first Street in Manhattan where she also maintained
her studio. Also in 1910, Ka ̈sebier became President
of the Women’s Federation of the Professional Photo-
graphers Association of America. In 1912, she resigned
from the Photo-Secession, and early in this decade
she gave up photography. In 1916, Ka ̈sebier helped
found the Pictorial Photographers of America. She
continued to exhibit and kept her studio open until
1927, but by then her daughter Hermine was doing
most of the work. When Ka ̈sebier died in 1934, Pic-
torialism was definitely out of favor, and Ka ̈sebier’s
work was considered out-of-date.
MarianneBergerWoodsSeealso:de Meyer, Baron; Family Photography;
History of Photography: Nineteenth-Century Foun-
dations; History of Photography: Twentieth-Century
Pioneers; Linked Ring; Pictorialism; Photo-Seces-
sion; Photo-Secessionists; Portraiture; Stieglitz,
AlfredBiography
Born Gertrude Stanton 18 May 1852 in Fort Des Moines,
Iowa. 1874, married Eduard Ka ̈sebier; three children,
Frederick William, Gertrude Elizabeth, and Hermine
Mathilde. 1889, enrolls in art course at the Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn, New York. 1893, travels to France and
abandons painting for photography. 1897, establishes por-
trait studio on Fifth Avenue in New York. 1899, exhibits
at Camera Club of New York; works published in Photo-
Secession journal,Camera Work, in January 1903. 1900,
elected to membership in Camera Club of New York and
Linked Ring Brotherhood, London. 1902, cofounder of
the Photo Secession. 1907, photographed sculptor
Auguste Rodin and his work in Paris. 1910, husband
dies, moves from Oceanside, Long Island, to Manhattan
where she maintains studio; becomes president of
Women’s Federation of the Professional Photographers
Association of America. 1912, resigns from the Photo-
Secession. Died in New York City October 13, 1934.Solo Exhibitions
1899 Camera Club of New York
1929 Department of Photography at the Brooklyn Institute
of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New YorkKA ̈SEBIER, GERTRUDE