In late summer 1908 Rodin moved the plaster of his sculpture of the French writer Honoré de Balzac out of his studio and into the open air so that Steichen, who disliked its chalky aspect in the daylight, could photograph it by the moon. Waiting through several exposures as long as an hour each, Steichen made this exposure at 11 p.m., when the moonlight transformed the plaster into a monumental phantom rising above the brooding nocturnal landscape. Steichen recalled that when he presented his finished prints some weeks later, an elated Rodin exclaimed: "You will make the world understand my Balzac through your pictures. They are like Christ walking on the desert."
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Galleries," April 9–October 17, 1965.
Sezon Museum of Modern Art. "The Art of Photography: 1839-1989," March 3, 1990–April 1, 1990.
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Greenough, Sarah, ed. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 2000. fig. 12.
New York et l'Art Moderne: Alfred Stieglitz et Son Cercle (1905–1930). Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2004. p. 71.
Brandow, Todd, and William A. Ewing. Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography. Minneapolis: Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, 2007. fig. 52.
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Edward J. Steichen (American (born Luxembourg), Bivange 1879–1973 West Redding, Connecticut)
1927
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