Kitty

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.

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.

December 1909 – 1910

Toulouse-Lautrec, Rousseau and Cézanne lithographs

In December 1909 Stieglitz showed paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec at his gallery, and in 1910 works by Matisse, Rodin and Rousseau and lithographs by Cézanne.

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.