New Acquisition Alert: Alfred Stieglitz: The Net Mender

The Two Red Roses Foundation is pleased to announce the acquisition of Alfred Stieglitz’s 1894 carbon print, The Net Mender. A signature image from the artist’s early career, appearing in over 20 exhibitions between 1895 and 1910 and frequently reproduced in photographic literature such as the famed Camera Notes, this stunning image will be on display for the upcoming lecture on Pictorial Photography, presented by Dr. Alexander Rich on Sunday, May 19 at MAACM.

Stieglitz adored The Net Mender, illustrating and exhibiting it many times during his career, and even hanging it in a place of honor in his New York apartment. In the 1899 article, “My Favorite Picture” in the journal Photographic Life, Stieglitz describes The Net Mender as follows:

[The Net Mender] was the subject of much study. It expresses the life of a young Dutch woman; every stitch in the mending of the fishing net, the very rudiment of her existence, brings forth a torrent of poetic thoughts in those who watch her sit there on the vast and seeming endless dunes, toiling with that seriousness and peacefulness which is so characteristic of these sturdy people. All her hopes are concentrated in this occupation—it is her life.

Taken during a visit to the Dutch coastal town of Katwyck aan Zee in the Spring of 1894, The Net Mender is set against the minimalist backdrop of the seashore. This image captures the woman engrossed in her work, her right hand holding a net-mending shuttle which, along with her white bonnet, is a focal point of the composition. Another stunning image in the TRRF collection in both carbon print and photogravure version, Gossip-Katwyck (1894), was also taken during the same trip by Stieglitz. As with The Net Mender, Stieglitz uses the expanse of the horizon past the shore line to highlight two women in conversation, the wind off the ocean blowing their clothes, creating movement in the composition.

Carbon print formats of this image are in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago, while smaller platinum prints are in the collections of Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany, and The Princeton Art Museum.