229

Baron Adolf de Meyer

1868-1946

Album entitled Portraits of American Women with 65 photographs. Circa 1900-20.

Platinum and silver prints
A few with printing notations in pencil on print verso; each of the prints are tipped to the original mounts; the original cover with the title and notation "Chemistry by E.K. Carter," in ink, but completely disbound.
The images 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (24.1 x 19.1 cm.), and slightly smaller, the mounts 19 x 12 in. (48.3 x 30.5 cm.), some double mounted

  • Provenance:
    Estate of Harriet Culver; to the Present Owner
  • Notes:
    In 1913, de Meyer traveled to Chicago to give an exhibition of portraits of American women, including portraits of Queen Alexandra, the Marchioness of Ripon, Mrs. John Astor, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Mrs. George Gould, the Baroness de Meyer, and many others.

    Identified subjects include the photographer's wife and muse Olga de Meyer, Belle da Costa Greene (acclaimed librarian to J.P. Morgan), Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the socialite Rita de Acosta Lydig, Linda Lee Porter (wife of Cole Porter), and Madeleine Force Astor.

    A member of the Royal Photographic Society and the Linked Ring, Baron Adolf de Meyer was published in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work, and a member of the Photo-Secession. He was the first full-time photographer hired by Vogue magazine in 1914, and worked there until 1921, when he moved to Harper's Bazaar. de Meyer's elegant Pictorialist-inspired portraits were considered the epitome of style during this period, and though his fin-de-siècle work (and the world they represented) fell out of style after WWII, his sophisticated imagery has once again become an inspiration to contemporary fashion photographers.
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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October 16, 2025 10:30 AM EDT
New York, NY, US

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