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

Metadata Usage

Usage conditions apply

Link to Original Record

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm42480ab8a-37b0-408c-b215-8cefc2d95675

Record ID

npg_NPG.2001.84