The Manger

Close up of The Manger

Ethereal black-and-white photograph of a women wearing a long white dress and gossamer veil, sitting in a stable, holding a swaddled infant. Dramatically illuminated by a shaft of light streaming in, she gazes down at the child cradled in her arms.
Ethereal black-and-white photograph of a women wearing a long white dress and gossamer veil, sitting in a stable, holding a swaddled infant. Dramatically illuminated by a shaft of light streaming in, she gazes down at the child cradled in her arms.
Gertrude Käsebier, The Manger, 1899; Platinum print, 8 3/8 x 6 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of the Holladay Foundation; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

While summering in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1899, Gertrude Käsebier staged and shot this photograph in a stable. She enlisted her friend, illustrator Frances Delehanty, to model for the image.

The photograph’s title references the Biblical story of the birth of Christ. But despite the implied narrative, Käsebier was more interested in creating a formal study of shade and tone than in telling a story or setting a mood.

In her other images of mothers with children, Käsebier typically showed the face of one figure in order to enhance the narrative content of the composition. For The Manger, she obscured Delehanty’s face in shadow, and merely suggested the infant’s body with folds of swaddling cloth. (In fact, there was no baby within the drapery on Delehanty’s lap.)

Käsebier was a founding member of the Photo-Secession, a group of photographers dedicated to promoting Pictorialism and the expressive capabilities of the photographic image. Pictorialist photographers often used soft-focus or manipulated their film negatives to elevate their photographs above mere transcriptions of the physical world.

Alfred Stieglitz, a fellow founder of the Photo-Secession, published The Manger in the inaugural issue of his influential journal Camera Work in 1903.

Artwork Details

  • Artist

    Gertrude Käsebier
  • Title

    The Manger
  • Date

    1899
  • Medium

    Platinum print
  • Dimensions

    7 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.
  • Donor Credit

    Gift of the Holladay Foundation
  • Photo Credit

    Lee Stalsworth
  • On Display

    No