EDWARD STEICHEN

In March 1985, the National Museum of Luxembourg received a generous and unexpected bequest from the estate of Edward Steichen, the great American photographer born in Luxembourg. The bequest includes a total of 178 prints, including 175 photographs by Steichen himself which cover almost every aspect of his photographic work – from images imbued with early pictorialism to portraiture, fashion, advertising, landscapes and photography of family. For the first time, this extraordinary collection is presented in an exhaustive manner, with full-page illustrations of the 178 photographs. In addition, the publication includes an exceptional scientific component: six new essays dealing with issues of identification, techniques and dating of prints as well as their conservation and preservation. These texts retrace the provenance and the history of the impact of the collection and compare the importance of the Luxembourg donation with other legacies made at the same time to institutions in the United States and overseas. The importance of the surprisingly large number of family photographs from the Luxembourg bequest and the exceptional role of Steichen as a mediator of modernity between Europe and the New World are also explored.