Anatole France (1844-1924) was a French writer, critic and journalist, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. In 1922, all of his works were put on the prohibited books index of the Catholic Church, which Anatole France regarded as a distinction. 

We do not know where and in what context Steichen photographed Anatole France. But it is documented that he was an admirer of the French writer. The portrait was first exhibited at Steichen’s solo exhibition at Montrose Gallery in New York in 1910.