Stories Behind the Stones:
Harriet Templeton Lee, Photographer’ s Model; Lot # 3277, Rose Path
Patricia J. Fanning, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Bridgewater State University
Harriet Templeton Lee( 1892-1900) is an unfamiliar name to most but Peggy, as Harriet was called, was a model for famed pictorial photographers and part of one iconic image, Blessed Art Thou among Women, by Gertrude Käsebier. Born in September, 1892, in Boston, Peggy was the first child of Francis Watts Lee, a printer and photographer, and his wife Agnes Rand Lee, a poet. Both were devotees of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The girl was first photographed by F. Holland Day, who was a family friend and one of the leaders of American Pictorialism. Day’ s most well-known portrait of Peggy( figure 1), taken in 1898, has her standing beside the artist’ s hobnailed leather chair, his theatrical leopard skin draped across it. Peggy wears a spotless white dress with lacetrimmed collar and cuffs. As was his custom, Day placed significant accessories in the composition. In this instance, the portrait of an elderly bearded man sits on the console behind Peggy’ s left shoulder. Possibly the depiction of some Biblical character, the rather disconcerting image lends a certain solemnity to the tableau, as does the copy of Louis- Maurice Boutet de Manuel’ s Joan of Arc which Peggy holds. Opened to an illustration of the peasant Joan encountering a vision of her future self, it was likely placed there by Day to suggest a similarly inspirational path for Peggy. This is not the portrait of a girl engaged in frivolous child’ s play.
Instead, she stands straight-backed, gravely challenging the camera, seemingly ready to meet whatever life brings.
For Käsebier’ s famed Blessed Art Thou among Women( figure 2) the camera appears to be surreptitiously recording a private moment. Of course the cumbersome equipment and intricate lighting requirements of the age made the unplanned creation of such a photograph impossible. According to Käsebier, however, she asked the two to hold a pose she had previously witnessed. Agnes, relaxed and comfortable as she turns her head away from the camera, braces one hand on the door frame while the other rests on her daughter’ s shoulder. The child, meanwhile, is drawn to her full height, heels together, hands at her side, staring determinedly past the viewer.
It is a flawless composition in color, tone, and shape. The varying shades of white, Agnes’ s billowing gown and Peggy’ s brightly starched collar and cuffs, and the light tones of the background wall and painted door frame play off one another. In addition, the textures of the varied fabrics – the ethereal yet voluminous dress of the mother contrasted with the depth and solidity of the girl’ s attire – and the rounded forms of the figures in counterpoint to the rectilinear doorway and the elongated cropping of the image itself result in an eloquent balance of pattern and shape. More significant, Käsebier has sympathetically
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