Edward Steichen
(b Luxembourg, 27 March 1879; d West
Redding, CT, 25 March 1973).
American photographer, painter,
designer and curator of Luxembourgeois birth. Steichen
emigrated to the USA in 1881 and grew up in Hancock, MI, and
Milwaukee, WI. His formal schooling ended when he was 15,
but he developed an interest in art and photography. He used
his self-taught photographic skills in design projects
undertaken as an apprentice at a Milwaukee lithography firm.
The Pool-evening (1899; New York, MOMA) reflects his early awareness of the
Impressionists, especially Claude Monet, and American
Symbolist photographers such as Clarence H. White. While
still in Milwaukee, his work came to the attention of White,
who provided an introduction to Alfred Stieglitz; Stieglitz
was impressed by Steichen’s work and bought three of his
photographs.