1. HERBERT FRENCH, Iris, 1909, 9.25x5.938" Photogravure from Camera Work Issue 27, July 1909, Printed 1909, Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: C32656.

2. HERBERT FRENCH, Winged Victory, 1909, 7.75x6.313" Photogravure from Camera Work Issue 27, July 1909, Printed 1909, Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: HD267.

Herbert Greer French (1872-1842) was born in Covington, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. After attending the University of Cincinnati, French began working at Proctor and Gamble in 1893, eventually becoming Senior Vice President. He began exhibiting creative photographs around 1900, the year his work was accepted at the prestigious Philadelphia Photographic Salon, judged by Alfred Stieglitz and other top pictorialists. French became known for his images of women in exotic costume (often illustrating his favorite poems), printed on platinum paper in low and subtle tonalities 

French was an early member of Stieglitz's elite Photo-Secession group and was designated a fellow in 1904. His work was exhibited at the Carnegie Institute in 1904, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1906, and New York's National Arts Club in 1909. It was also seen at the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, including a one-person exhibition in early 1906, comprising forty-five illustrations to Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. That same year, French arranged the exhibition Photographic Art for the Cincinnati Art Museum, which comprised almost exclusively work by Secession members. The July 1909 issue of Camera Work featured five photogravures by French, along with an article by him on creativity and achievement.

French devoted himself to arts other than pictorial photography. Fancying himself a poet, he self-published two limited-edition volumes. He helped raise money for Cincinnati musical organizations, but most importantly was a serious print collector. In 1928, he was appointed the Cincinnati Art Museum's first curator of prints. The next year, he became a trustee and funded the construction of a wing for the museum (named after him) to house the new department of prints.

Christian A. Peterson Pictorial Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Christian A. Peterson: Privately printed, 2012). This biography is courtesy and copyright of Christian Peterson and is included here with permission. CREDIT: https://www.christianapeterson.com/
http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/Herbert_G__French/ABCDEF/

Influential in establishing photography as an art form in the United States, Alfred Stieglitz edited and published magazines, organized photographers, operated galleries, and crafted his own creative photographic images. He promoted the photogravure process as an original means of photographic printmaking. Stieglitz had hands-on experience with photogravure and used it extensively for his work and the work of fellow pictorialists. He initially worked at the Photochrome Engraving Company  in New York, where he gained intimate knowledge of photogravure and other printing processes. In 1897 Stieglitz issued Picturesque Bits Of New York And Other Studies, a portfolio of his own large-format gravures, for which he personally made the film positives for plate making. At this time, he marketed his individual photogravures as collectible, original works of art, numbering, signing, and printing them in limited editions. Stieglitz used the photogravure process for most of the illustrations in his groundbreaking periodicals, Camera Notes (1897-1903) and Camera Work (1903-1917). The photogravures in these journals, all personally approved by Stieglitz, enabled a larger audience to experience the artful qualities of photography. He was so confident of the quality of these gravures that he occasionally sent them to be displayed at international exhibitions of artistic photography.

Credit: https://photogravure.com/key-figure/alfred-stieglitz/

1. Excellent. Minor wear.
2. Excellent. Minor wear, slight staining on mount recto and verso.