difficult images: well known








Difficult Images: Well Known


Figure 1.--I have seen this image before. I thought it was French or Italian, but it appears to be the work of a well-know American photographer. Itvit is an American image, one would sassume the child is a girl.

Here are some difficult images I have encountered. I believe that they are fairly well-known images, paintings, drawings, or photographs. I seen to recall seeing these on various occasins, but canot now identify them. Please let me know if you have any insights or thoughts of who they are or who produced them.

Figure 1

I had seen fifure 1 before, but recalled nothing about the details. I assumed the image was French or Italian. An HBC contributor, however, has provided some background on the image. It is apparently by an American woman photographer named Gertrude Käsebier. She was well regarded for the romantic style so popular in the turn of the century America. The foto is titled Blessed art though Among Women and was published in Camera Work, issue #1 1903. From the title (a phrase from the prayer Hail Mary) one might assume that the figure is a boy. He is double checking with a friend in the States. She might know. HBC thought that the child might be a boy if the image was Italian or French, but assumes that if the image is American, the child is a girl. The child is apparently ready to go to school, but I have never seen photographs of American boys of that age going to schools in smocks are such long hair.

Reader Comment

One reader writes, "I am pretty sure that the child is a girl. The phrase 'Blessed Among Women' is not just a line from the Hail Mary--it is the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary when she announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus. The woman is in white and I think, is an angel figure delivering a message to a young girl."






Christopher Wagner





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Created: December 18, 1998
Last updated: December 5, 2002