Gertrude Kasebier's work in Pictorialism was an early influence on the Romantic style of photography.

Gertrude Stanton was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1852. Little did her family know that she would become one of the most well-known photographers of her time.

In 1874, she married her husband, Edward Kasebier. Between 1889 and 1894 she attended the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, New York. Here she studied drawing, painting and other subjects. After her years at Pratt, Kasebier spent a year taking photographs in Germany and France. While in Germany, she became a photographer apprentice to a German Chemist. In 1897 or early 1898, Kasebier decided to open a commercial portrait studio to earn extra money. Her most famous theme was motherhood and she often used a soft focus lens and other devices to make her images more expressive.

After accomplishing so much, Gertrude Kasebier died in 1934.

Barbara L. Micheals. Gertrude Kasebier; The Photographer and Her Photographs. New York: Abrams, 1992.

Anne Tucker. The Woman's Eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.

Directory of Notable Photographers