Fred Varnum

25 November 1905

The 291 gallery opens on Fifth Avenue

On November 25, 1905, the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession opened at 291 Fifth Avenue with one hundred prints by thirty-nine photographers; Edward Steichen had encouraged Stieglitz to lease the three rooms across from his own apartment. The gallery was an instant success, with almost fifteen thousand visitors in its first season and print sales of nearly $2,800, more than half of them Steichen's work.

1907

Paris: Gertrude Stein and a turn to painting

In Paris in 1907 Stieglitz met Gertrude Stein and was captivated by Rodin, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne and Rousseau. He decided to turn his photography gallery into a full art gallery to introduce the conservative American public to the newest European art.

January 1907

Pamela Colman Smith's drawings at 291

In December 1906 Stieglitz met the 28-year-old artist Pamela Colman Smith and decided to show her drawings and watercolours, thinking it “highly instructive to compare drawings and photographs”. Her show, which opened in January 1907, drew far more visitors than any previous photography show, and all her works were sold.

January – April 1908

Rodin and Matisse at 291

In January 1908 Stieglitz showed drawings by Rodin at his gallery, and in April an exhibition of Matisse, beginning his campaign to introduce the American public to the newest European art.

January – May 1916

Meets Georgia O'Keeffe

In January 1916 the suffragist Anita Pollitzer showed Stieglitz a set of charcoal drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe, and he decided to exhibit them at 291 without meeting her or asking her permission. In late May O'Keeffe heard of it from a friend and came to the gallery to chastise him, which is how they met; by the summer of 1917 they were writing each other their most private thoughts.

June 1918

O'Keeffe comes to New York; he leaves his family

In early June 1918 O'Keeffe moved to New York from Texas after Stieglitz promised her a quiet studio. Within a month his wife Emmy came home during one of the first nude photography sessions in the family apartment and told him to stop seeing O'Keeffe or get out; Stieglitz left and immediately found a place in the city where he and O'Keeffe could live together.