Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.
Her husband supported her financially when she began to attend art school at the age of thirty-seven, a time when most women of her day were well-settled in their social positions. Käsebier never indicated what motivated her to study art, but she devoted herself to it wholeheartedly.
Throughout the late 1910s and most of the 1920s Käsebier expanded her portrait business, taking photos of many important people of the time including Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies, Mabel Dodge and Stanford White. In 1924 her daughter Hermine Turner joined her in her portrait business.
In 1929 Käsebier gave up photography altogether and liquidated the contents of her studio. That same year she was given a major one-person exhibition at the Booklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Käsebier died on 12 October 1934 at the home of her daughter, Hermine Turner.
Miss N (Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit), 1903 by Gertrude Käsebier via
Girl in Satin Dress with Roses by Gertrude Käsebier (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) via
The Bride by Gertrude Käsebier, 1902 via
Genevieve Lyon by Gertrude Käsebier, 1914 via
Portrait of Miss Minnie Ashley by Gertrude Käsebier, 1905 via
The Magic Crystal, or the Crystal Gazer by Gertrude Käsebier, 1904 via
Self-Portrait by Gertrude Käsebier, 1905 via
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