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1890s Hartmann was trying his hand at various types of
journalism, from sketches of New York life ranging from
studies of the poor to the upper class for the New York
Staats-Zeitung to articles on pictorial photography for
The Critierion; to critiques of dance performances.
Hartmann himself was an avid dancer, and had skills
as a visual artist. He painted and did pastel work as an
amateur much of his life. Exhibitions of his work were
held in 1894, and in 1900 at the Allen Gallery.
Hartmann met Alfred Stieglitz in 1898, a meeting that
was to become important for both men’s lives—Stieglitz
recognized Hartmann’s writing talents and hired him to
write for his publication “Camera Notes” and subse-
quently for the well-known Camera Work.
Hartmann’s articles for Stieglitz’s publications helped
elevate photography to the realm of fi ne art. Articulate,
poetic, and direct, Hartmann’s vision and voice were
strong and persuasive. As example, Hartmann wrote in
1898, “Whenever I have spoke of the possibilities of
photography becoming so independent and artistic that
it can claim to be ranked as one of the expressions of
pictorial art, the work of men like Robert De Machy, and
Alfred Stieglitz has formed the basis and starting point
for my speculations. Alfred Stieglitz is to me indisput-
ably the foremost photographer of America...”
Or in 1902, Hartman wrote, “I had seen them de-
part on their great mission, those valiant Knights of
Daguerre [Stieglitz, Keiley, Steichen, Coburn]. I had
seen them depart on their perilous journey over the
Allegheny Mountains to open the Secession Shrine in
Pittsburgh...Imagine my ecstatic joy when I received
a telegram...money enclosed. We cannot do without
you...So I sharpened my pencil, took my dress-suit out
of pawn, bade farewell to my wife and offspring, and
set forth on my nocturnal pilgrimage.” ( Above quota-
tions from Sadakichi Hartmann, The Valiant Knights
of Daguerre, Harry Lawton and George Knox eds.,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978, 159,
frontispiece.)
Hartmanns profl es of various photographic pioneers
such as Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Clarence White,
Gertrude Käsebier, F. Holland Day, Frank Eugene, etc.,
helped bring the new work of these photographers to
the public eye.
By 1901, Hartmann had published his Shakespeare
in Art, his fi rst book in art, and in 1902 he published the
fi rst History of American Art (Boston: L.C. Page & Co.),
as well as a portfolio edition of Modern American Sculp-
ture. The History was used for many years as a standard
textbook, and revised in 1938. In 1903 he published a
book on Japanese Art. Two other books, The Whistler
Book and Landscape and Figure a Composition were
published in 1910.
Hartmann’s critical writings tended to be less ana-
lytic, more poetic, than much criticism, often becoming
works of art in themselves in response to the beauty of
a visual art piece. As he noted in his prose poem, White
Chrysanthemums,”“...to learn to look at pictures...we
look at the fl ush of the evening sky, at a passing cloud,
at the vision of a beautiful woman, or at a white chry-
santhemum” (Camera Work, No. 5, January 1904,
119–120).
In 1902 Hartmann also began using the pen-name of
“Sydney Allan” for a number of articles. From 1904 to
approximately 1907–08, Stieglitz and Hartmann become
distanced from one another and Hartmann wrote pri-
marily about the Salon Club photographers rather than
Stieglitz and the Photo-Secessionists. In that interim
period Hartmann also lectured to the National Center of
Photographers and began a lecture tour throughout the
United States, these tours lasting until 1910.
In 1906 Hartmann was also commissioned to assist
John Beatty, Director of the Carnegie Institute, to ac-
quire American Drawings.
Hartmann’s health began to deteriorate by 1911, and
he decided to leave New York City and the art world,
moving to East Aurora, New York, where he met Lil-
lian Bonham, whom he subsequently moved west with,
while continuing to give lectures and write for numerous
American photography journals from 1912–1918.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1923, Hartmann tried
to cultivate the “Hollywood Scene.” For a number of
years he was the Hollywood columnist for the London
publication, “The Curtain.” He even appeared in a
small part as the court magician in Douglas Fairbanks’
The Thief of Baghdad. In general, though, Hartmann’s
years in Hollywood were the beginning of a slow slide
into obscurity, even though he was often at parties with
W.C. Fields, John Barrymore, and a literary group that
gathered at Margery Winter’s home, all liking to hear
and see Hartmann’s sharp wit, recitations, and dance
routines.
In the last years of his life, beginning in 1938, Hart-
mann retreated from Hollywood, and built a shack in
the California desert near the home of his daughter
Wistaria Linton, on the Morongo Indian Reservation in
Banning, California. There he sporadically wrote and
painted pastels, and corresponded with other writers
such as Ezra Pound and George Santayana.
World War II brought nightmarish treatment to Hart-
mann as the FBI interrogated him due to his Japanese-
German background, and threatened to intern him. Many
of Hartmann’s friends, questioned by the FBI as well,
stopped seeing or calling him. The harassment never
completely ended. On November 21, 1944, Hartmann
died at the home of his eldest daughter, Atma, in St.
Petersburg, Florida, where he had gone to gather mate-
rial for an unfi nished autobiography.
Hartmann’s contribution to American culture and the
history of photography was unique, given his Japanese-