Lot 23 Dα

Heinrich Kühn shot the portrait of his colleague, the American photographer Edward Steichen, at the end of July 1907, when Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz came to visit him at his house in Innsbruck. Kühn was full of admiration for the work of the two Americans, whose prints fascinated him above all because of their 'fine tonal values'. From 1902 onwards, works of the American art photographers were increasingly represented in German and Austrian exhibitions. The influence of the pictorialism of American provenance is the reason for a distinct stylistic change in Kühn's work. After spending several years intensively perfecting the rubber printing process (cf. lot 18), which is characterised by comparatively large formats and a powerful, strongly two-dimensional appearance similar to the effect of paintings, he began to work with the technique of platinum printing which has a smaller, more intimate format and more subtle markings. The latter applies to a large extent to this sheet. While Steichen's face and hands stand out brightly illuminated and high in contrast from the surrounding space, thus forming strong accents, the photographer's attention also focused on the nuanced reproduction of the dark wood panelling in the background. The 'mastery of great colour contrasts', which for Kühn represented 'the practically highly important problem' of his photographic activity, was achieved here in a most impressive way.