MuseoMag: MuseoMag 2023_01

MuseoMag 2023_01

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Title:: MuseoMag

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Title:: MuseoMag 2023_01

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Title:: The many faces of a "Lëtzebuerger Jong": A detailed look at the MNHA's Steichen collection

34 museomag 01 ‘ 2023 THE MANY FACES OF A “LËTZEBUERGER JONG” A DETAILED LOOK AT THE MNHA’S STEICHEN COLLECTION The newly published volume Edward Steichen. The Luxembourg Bequest offers a much-needed appraisal of the MNHA’s collection. It’s a little known fact that the Luxembourg-born photographer Edward Steichen left a collection of 178 photographs to his home country that is notable both for its range and quality. The then National Museum of Luxembourg was issued the bequest in 1985 and this collection of original prints has received surprisingly little scholarly attention since, compared to the public recognition garnered by the two exhibitions curated by the photographer, namely The Family of Man and The Bitter Years. The newly published volume Edward Steichen. The Luxembourg Bequest offers a much-needed appraisal of the MNHA’s collection, a selection of which is on permanent display at the museum’s designated Steichen cabinet, changed every three months for conservation reasons. Featuring full-page illustrations of each print in the bequest, including the inscriptions on the back, the catalogue is a valuable resource for photography experts and enthusiasts. The images are ordered thematically rather than chronologically, covering Steichen’s early landscapes, portraits and nudes, as well as rare colour prints and experimental works from the 1920s and 1930s. Designed to put the bequest on the scholarly map, the publication also includes six essays that shed light on different aspects of the collection, offering new avenues of investigation and detailed analysis of the prints themselves. THE STORY BEHIND THE BEQUEST In the introduction to the publication, the MNHA’s director Michel Polfer tracks the unlikely history of the bequest and its reception in Luxembourg, from the late 1980s through to today. Indeed, it wasn’t at all a given that Luxembourg should receive such a generous donation. As Polfer points out, Steichen had an ambivalent relationship with his country of birth which waxed and waned over the course of his life. His 1952 visit to Luxembourg, for instance, was met with complete indifference on the part of the local © éric chenal

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