Richard Georg Strauss (1864-1949) was a German composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor. Strauss, along with his friend Gustav Mahler, is considered the leading composer of the late Romantic and early Modern eras. Edward Steichen photographed Richard Strauss in 1904, when the composer was on his first tour of North America. Strauss sat for Steichen in the photographer’s studio in New York, where he conducted the world premiere of his Symphonia Domestica at Carnegie Hall.