[ Photographs ] Kaesebier Gertrude Yoked and Muzzled - Marriage. Gum bichromate print, 9.25 x 12inches, with the photographer's signature in the negative. 1915 or before E4000-5000 An allegorical photograph by Gertrude Kaesebier 1852-1934, who is

[ Photographs ] Kaesebier Gertrude Yoked and Muzzled - Marriage. Gum bichromate print, 9.25 x 12inches, with the photographer's signature in the negative. 1915 or before E4000-5000 An allegorical photograph by Gertrude Kaesebier 1852-1934, who is considered one of the key figures in early 20th-century photography. A member of Stieglitz's Photo Secession group, Kaesebier pioneered soft-focus, a pictorial style of photography.Admired for her sensitive evocations of character expressed in exquisite compositions of pattern and tone, she was also a successful commercial photographer, photographing the leading writers and artists of her day. Mile Kaesebier is associated with loving studies of mothers and children, her later work took on a more psychological tone, weighing in on such complex social issues as the institution Of matrimony and women's rights. This image for example, suggests a dark side to marriage and her support of the modern freedom ofwomen. In her biography of the artist, Barbara Michaels writes: "With ury humor, Kaesebier equates matrimony to the yoking and gagging of oxen, two emasculated creatures who, inseparably are forced to wear a weighty burden. Holding hands in a connotation of adult betrothal and marriage, a young boy and girl confront the looming oxen who may symbolize their future." See Michaels's Gertrude Kaesebier,,: The Photographer and Her Photographs (New York, 1992 ,pp 153-54 A platinum print and flopped gum print of this photograph is also reproduced on p. 157