37 Facts About Edward Steichen

Edward Jean Steichen was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography.

Edward Steichen's photographs appeared in Alfred Stieglitz's groundbreaking magazine Camera Work more often than anyone else during its publication run from 1903 to 1917.

From 1923 to 1938, Steichen served as chief photographer for the Conde Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair, while working for many advertising agencies, including J Walter Thompson.

From 1947 to 1961, Edward Steichen served as Director of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Edward Steichen's parents facing increasingly straitened circumstances and financial difficulties, decided to make a new start and emigrated to the United States when Steichen was eighteen months old.

Jean-Pierre Edward Steichen immigrated in 1880, with Marie Edward Steichen bringing the infant Eduard along after Jean-Pierre had settled in Hancock in Michigan's Upper Peninsula copper country.

Eduard's sister and only sibling, Lilian Edward Steichen, was born in Hancock on May 1,1883.

In 1894, at fifteen, Edward Steichen began attending Pio Nono College, a Catholic boys' high school, where his artistic talents were noticed.

Edward Steichen quit high school to begin a four-year lithography apprenticeship with the American Fine Art Company of Milwaukee.

In 1899, Edward Steichen's photographs were exhibited in the second Philadelphia Photographic Salon.

Edward Steichen was the most frequently shown photographer in the journal.

Edward Steichen began experimenting with color photography in 1904 and was one of the earliest in the United States to use the Autochrome Lumiere process.

In 1905, Stieglitz and Edward Steichen created the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, in what had been Edward Steichen's portrait studio; it eventually became known as the 291 Gallery after its address.

In 1911, Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, challenged Edward Steichen to promote fashion as a fine art through photography.

Edward Steichen took photos of gowns designed by couturier Paul Poiret, which were published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Decoration.

Edward Steichen was developing new varieties of delphinium, which in 1936 had been the subject of his first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and the only flower exhibition ever held there.

Edward Steichen selected for his unit six officer-photographers from the industry, including photographers Wayne Miller and Charles Fenno Jacobs.

In 1942, Edward Steichen curated for the Museum of Modern Art the exhibition Road to Victory, five duplicates of which toured the world.

Edward Steichen was released from Active Duty on December 13,1945, at the rank of Captain.

Nevertheless, Ansel Adams' image Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico was first published in US Camera Annual 1943, after being selected by Edward Steichen, who was serving as judge for the publication.

Edward Steichen worked with Robert Frank even before his The Americans was published, exhibited the early work of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, and purchased two Rauschenberg prints in 1952, ahead of any museum.

Edward Steichen kept international developments in his scope and held shows and made important acquisitions from Europe and Latin America, occasionally visiting those countries to do so.

Edward Steichen hired John Szarkowski to be his successor at the Museum of Modern Art on July 1,1962.

On December 6,1963, Steichen was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Lyndon B Johnson.

In 1968 the Edward Steichen Archive was established in MoMA's Department of Photography.

Edward Steichen bought a farm that he called Umpawaug in 1928, just outside West Redding, Connecticut.

Edward Steichen lived there until his death on March 25,1973, two days before his 94th birthday.

In 1974 Edward Steichen was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

Edward Steichen took the photograph in Mamaroneck, New York, near the home of his friend, art critic Charles Caffin.

Edward Steichen created the impression of color by manually applying layers of light-sensitive gums to the paper.

In 1915, Clara Edward Steichen returned to France with her daughter Kate, staying in their house in the Marne in spite of the war.

Edward Steichen returned to France with the Photography Division of the American Army Signal Corps in 1917, whereupon Clara returned to the United States.

In 1919, Clara Edward Steichen sued Marion Beckett for having an affair with her husband, but was unable to prove her claims.

In 1960, aged 80, Edward Steichen married 27-year-old Joanna Taub and remained married to her until his death, two days before his 94th birthday.

Joanna Edward Steichen died on July 24,2010, in Montauk, New York, aged 77.

Experiment in Three-Color Photography, by Edward Steichen, published in Camera Work No 15,1906.

Eugene, Stieglitz, Kuhn and Edward Steichen Admiring the Work of Eugene, by Frank Eugene from 1907.