c. 1900

Mrs. F. H. Evans

American, 1852 - 1934

In 1889, at the age of thirty-seven, Käsebier enrolled at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute to study portrait painting. Although the art school did not teach photography, Käsebier began using a camera at home to document her growing children, eventually favoring photography over other mediums. She established a commercial portrait studio in New York City in 1897, working to "bring out in each photograph the essential personality that is variously called temperament, soul, humanity." This portrait features Ada Emily Longhurst, wife of photographer Frederick H. Evans, whom Käsebier befriended while on a trip to England in 1901.