Mrs. Beatrice Baxter Ruyl and Infant
Gertrude Käsebier
American, 1852–1934
1905
A 1905 platinum print by Gertrude Käsebier showing a mother seated beside her newborn in a cradle, aiming to translate intimate domestic feeling into a quietly luminous photographic composition.
Soft platinum tonalities and gentle window light carve the woman's profile and the cradle into planes of glow and shadow, producing a contemplative stillness that reads like a private, reverent moment frozen in time.
A key example of pictorial photography, this work helped legitimize photography as an expressive, painterly medium and elevated everyday subjects—particularly motherhood—into serious artistic themes.
Medium
Platinum print
Dimensions
7 5/8 × 9 3/4" (19.4 × 24.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Hermine M. Turner
Accession
532.1964
Palette
Exhibitions
