Walt Whitman by Frederick Gutekunst, 1889

In his daybook, Whitman recorded on August 6, 1889 that he "went over in a carriage to Gutekunst's, Philadelphia & had photo: sittings" (Daybooks and Notebooks, vol. 2, New York University Press, 1978, p. 526). This and three other photographs are the results. Horace Traubel records on the back of a Library of Congress copy of one of these photographs that except for the photographs taken by Eakins and his assistants in Whitman's room in 1891, these were the last photographs taken of Whitman by a professional photographer, and certainly they were the last studio portraits.

Whitman thought Gutekunst was "on the top of the heap" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, July 2, 1889) as far as photographers went, and considered this photo "a first-rater—one of the best, anyhow" (Tuesday, September 3, 1889). Whitman described the photograph when he received twelve copies from Gutekunst as "big, seated, 3/4 length no hat—head of cane in right hand—good pict's" ("Notes on Photographs," p. 59). Whitman inscribed this photograph: "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 Richard Maurice Bucke "counts that the best picture yet—says that is the picture which will go down to the future" (Tuesday, September 3, 1889). 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" ("Notes on Photographs," p. 59). 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" (John Johnston, "Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891: In Camden").

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" (The Critic, vol. 15, 12 October 1889, p. 178; see also Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Saturday, October 12, 1889). 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" (Friday, September 21st, 1888).

For more information on Frederick Gutekunst, see "Notes on Whitman's Photographers."