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1889. Frederick Gutekunst, Philadelphia. Saunders #112. Courtesy
Charles E. Feinberg. In his Daybooks, Whitman recorded on
6 August 1889 that he "went over in a carriage to
Gutekunst's,
Philadelphia & had photo: sittings." This and the
following
two photos are the results. Horace Traubel records on
the back
of a Library of Congress copy of one of these photos that except
for the photos
taken by Eakins and his assistants in Whitman's room in
1891, these
were the last photos taken of Whitman by a professional
photographer, and certainly they were the last studio
portraits. Whitman thought Gutekunst was "on top of the
heap" as
far as photographers went, and considered this photo "a
first-
rater--one of the best, anyhow." Whitman described the
photo when
he received twelve copies from Gutekunst as "big,
seated, 3/4
length no hat--head of cane in right hand--good
pict's." Whitman
inscribed this photo: "My 71st year arrives: the
fifteen past
months nearly all illness or half illness--until a
tolerable
day (Aug: 6 1889) & convoy'd by Mr. B [Geoffrey
Buckwalter,
Camden teacher and Whitman's friend, who insisted on the
photos] and
Ed: W [Ed Wilkins, Whitman's nurse] I have been carriaged
across to
Philadelphia (how sunny & fresh & good look'd the
river, the
people, the vehicles, & Market & Arch streets!) & have
sat for
this photo: wh- satisfies me." Some of Whitman's friends
did not
like it as much as Whitman, but Whitman recalled that Dr. Bucke
"counts
that the best picture yet--says that is the picture
which will
go down to the future." John Burroughs also was taken
with
it: "Gracious! That's tremendous! He looks Titanic!
It's the
very best I have yet seen of him. It shows power,
mass,
penetration,-- everything. I like it too
because it shows his
head. He will persist in keeping his hat on and
hiding the
grand dome of his head. The portrait shows his body
too. I
don't like the way so many artists belittle their
sitters'
bodies." Whitman liked the rough natural quality of the
portrait:
"Nowadays photographers have a trick of what they call
'touching up' their work--smoothing out the
irregularities,
wrinkles, and what they consider defects in a person's
face--
but, at my special request, that has not been
interfered with
in any way, and, on the whole, I consider it a good
picture."
Jeannette Gilder, writing in The Critic soon after
the photo
session, described the portrait this way: "From its
framework
of thin white hair and flowing beard, the face of the
venerable
bard peers out, not with the vigorous serenity of his
prime,
but a look rather of inquiry and expectation." Whitman went
so far
at one point as to say that "to a person who gets only
one
picture, this picture is in more ways than any other
spiritually satisfactory and physically
representative."
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