Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1910 (Heft 30))

“Mr. Steichen likes to paint the phenomenon which the Indians call the ‘walking rain’—mov-
ing clouds dropping showers. ‘The Curtain of Rain’ is such a phenomenon, in a shadowy, mysteri-
ous landscape. In ‘The Rising Moon—Valley of the Morin,’ he gives us the most subtle inter-
pretation of the evening sky seen through a row of ghostly trees. Every one of his pictures is sus-
ceptible of exhaustive description, but after all the best part of them is that which cannot be de-
scribed—the tender and delightful color.
“In another room is a collection of Mr. Steichen’s remarkable photographs, which include
three of the studies of the Rodin Balzac. His portrait studies are probably unapproachable; those
of J. Pierpont Morgan, ex-President Roosevelt and Bernard Shaw are particularly successful.”
Royal Cortissoz in the “New York Tribune”:
“Another painter to whom similar counsel might be offered is Mr. Eduard J. Steichen, who
has an exhibition of his paintings and photographs at the Montross Gallery. The note struck here
is again altogether esoteric, and, by the same token, disappointing. It has been said of those mod-
ern manipulators of the camera who reverently approach photography as ‘an art’ that they do with
the camera what the painter does with the brush. With all respect for the sincerity of Mr. Steichen’s
purpose in the handling of color we are, nevertheless, constrained to remark that he does with
the brush precisely what he does with the camera—save that he does not do it quite so well. Grant-
ing the hypothesis on which he builds his photographs, the latter are undeniably effective. Witness
the three plates he has made of Rodin’s ‘Balzac,’ reproducing the famous statue in the open air,
under melodramatic conditions of light. The fantasticality of the piece is superbly emphasized.
It may be noted in passing that these photographs expose with innocent malice the very quality
which led to the rejection of the statue by the men of letters who sought a monument for the great
writer. Balzac had his histrionic side, but thus portrayed he would never have recognized himself.
But the key to his genius was none of Mr. Steichen’s affair. All he had to do was to raise Rodin’s
amazing figure to the nth power, and this he has unmistakably done. In the circumstances he
deserves only praise. To paint pictures from the same point of view, however, is another thing.
Mr. Steichen arranges his landscapes with something of the deft artfulness that he shows in his
photographs. The composition in a picture like his ‘Nocturne at Chateau du Doux’ suggests a
clever stage setting, and in this the work mentioned is typical. Everywhere the painter wakes the
same theatrical memories. Some of his carefully balanced harmonies raise a surmise that he has
sat at the feet of Whistler, and occasionally he gives us a hint of the decorative ingenuity of Japan.
Not once does he give us the savor of the soil, the sense of wood and field interpreted with loving
simplicity. His work, like Mr. Needham’s, though immensely clever, seems done wholly from the
outside.”
James Huneker in the “New York Sun”:
“ Eduard J. Steichen, better known as photographer than as painter, thanks to his admirable
manipulation of the camera, is showing thirty paintings at the Montross Galleries, 372 Fifth avenue.
There are also some of his celebrated photographs, the J. Pierpont Morgan, Bernard Shaw, Eleo-
nora Duse, Richard Strauss and Rodin’s ‘Balzac,’ which may be called without fear of contradic-
tion ‘interpretations.’ The Strauss simulacrum suggests the uncanny feeling that lurks at the bot-
tom of his poison green music. It must have been modelled after Franz Stuck’s ‘Luzifer’; the
eyes have the same malignant glare. But these heads are not new and the oils are. Mr. Steichen
has been much of late in France. Poetic of temperament, a man who senses the mystery of twilight
and the possessor of a tender, subtle brush, his pictures are at their best transcripts of moods,
moods of mystic rapture in the presence of a moonlit garden or aroused by the sweep of the Garden
of the Gods. His former spotty ‘dotty’ mannerisms have vanished; he paints in thin, clear strokes,
and with dexterity. The view in Rodin’s garden is for any one who has visited Meudon an enchant-
ing evocation. We once crossed the garden in the dusk and battled with our fears because of the
stone creatures that through some spell seemingly came to life after the sun had sunk. The various
colored reports which Mr. Steichen presents of his sojourn in the valley of the Morin indicate his
advance in his art since his last exhibition here a year ago. Too ethereal, too impalpable as are
most of these imaginings in paint—there is not much range in the choice of theme and treatment—
you feel, nevertheless, that there are potentialities as yet only hinted at in the art of Steichen. He

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