Self-Portrait

1909

Death of his father, Edward Stieglitz

His father, Edward Stieglitz (1833–1909), who had once taken the family to Europe for the children's education, died; as he would later do after his mother's death, Alfred buried his grief in his work.

1910

The Albright show and a new round of attacks

In 1910 the director of the Albright Art Gallery invited Stieglitz to organise a major show of the best contemporary photography, which provoked a new round of attacks: American Photography magazine called the Photo-Secession “a reactionary force of the most dangerous type”. “The reputation, not only of the Photo-Secession, but of photography is at stake,” Stieglitz wrote to the photographer George Seeley.

1911

The Met turns down Picasso for $2,000

In 1911 Stieglitz offered the Metropolitan Museum a collection of Picasso's works for $2,000 but was refused: according to the director, such mad things would never be accepted by America. Between 1908 and 1915 he exhibited 89 paintings and drawings by Picasso but could sell only one, which he ended up buying himself.

March – April 1911

Cézanne watercolours and Picasso drawings at 291

In March 1911 Stieglitz presented Cézanne's watercolours to the American public, and in April drawings and watercolours by Picasso.

August 1912

A Camera Work issue on Matisse and Picasso

By the summer of 1912 Stieglitz was so enthralled with non-photographic art that he devoted the August issue of Camera Work entirely to Matisse and Picasso.

1913

The Armory Show, and his own photographs at 291

Stieglitz lent works from 291 to the organisers, Walter Pach, Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, and was listed as an honorary vice-president of the exhibition along with Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Mabel Dodge and Isabella Stewart Gardner. He saw the Armory Show, which opened in February 1913, as a vindication of his five years of work at 291, where he simultaneously showed his own photographs so that the public could see photographs and modern paintings side by side.