The Flatiron, New York, 1905

Artist Edward Jean Steichen (American, 1879-1973)

Date1905

Mediumhand pulled photogravure

Dimensionsimage: 12 7/8 × 10 1/4 in. (32.7 × 26 cm)
sheet: 20 × 15 5/8 in. (50.8 × 39.7 cm)
mat: 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)

Credit LineGift of an anonymous donor

Label TextSteichen’s Flatiron is renowned as an iconic image of New York City at a moment when it was changing in character and beginning to reach new prominence on the global stage. The newly erected Flatiron Building was a symbol of these changes, which included a growing number of skyscrapers, including, even, this triangular building filling a wedge-shaped slice of land between three Manhattan streets - a structure so tall that it couldn’t be contained within Steichen’s camera frame. Though mocked by some for its unconventional shape when it was built, the building has since become a landmark contribution to early twentieth century American architecture and a prominent symbol of the city in which it sits. Steichen’s image has also become among the best-known examples of the Pictorialist movement in photography. The mist-filled photograph was among many around the turn of the century to attempt to mimic the appearance of Impressionist and Tonalist painting through manipulation of the photographic negative, and in so doing to make a case for photography to be taken seriously as an art medium. Among Steichen’s most committed allies in this effort was fellow photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who had pictured the building a year earlier. The Flatiron also represents the growing popularity of nighttime scenes during an era in which urbanites’ relationships to the night had recently changed with the advent and popularization of electric lighting in many European and North American cities. Meanwhile, the branch extending from its top left corner is likely borrowed from Japanese ukiyo-e prints that had been popularized in the West in the 1860s and ’70s.

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