The influences upon the young Edward Steichen are clearly evident in this rare example of his early technique and imagery. From his first stay in Paris, from 1900 to 1902, Steichen was influenced by Symbolist painting and one of its forerunners, Eugène Carrière. This influence was manifested several ways. In 1901 Steichen wrote an article defending his photographs on view at the Royal Photographic Society. In it, he describes his palette and aligns himself with Carrière: To some of us the lower tones have more of a tendency to make beautiful than tones more brilliant, and hence the repeated use of them. One strives for harmony - harmony in color, in value and in arrangement.... Carrière, one of the greatest modern French painters, keeps all his pictures in a low brownish key, using no pure whites or darks; and blending his tones, he secures an exquisite feeling of atmosphere and shrouds that in a lovely sentiment. (c.f. Steichen: The Master Prints, p. 16.) With its predominantly dark field, minimal highlights and brown tone Steichen could be referring to The Victor succinctly. With its vaguely Wagnerian title, typical Roman numeral dating and monogram signature (see: The Master Prints, p. 13 for a reproduction of Steichen's calling card, c. 1902 which employs a very similar design), The Victor is a fully informed Symbolist work.

It is tempting to believe that due to its title, presentation and provenance The Victor may be a self-portrait nude. The Victor originally came out of a folio scrapbook belonging to Gertrude Käsebier (see: Sotheby's lot referenced above) who was Steichen's companion at times in Europe. The intimate nature of the image, the extraordinarily heavy brushwork and manipulating of the gum bichromate emulsion leads, almost uneasily, to an unidentifiable subject. One might wonder as well if the title is self-referential, indicating Steichen's sense of accomplishment. The paper mount of The Victor matches the leaves of an album now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art which was apparently compiled by them both (c.f. Gertrude Käsebier: The Photographer and her Photographs, p. 83 and N. 49, p. 179.)
Steichen's use of the self-portrait is, arguably, more in line with shifting his identity than in defining it fully. The known self-portraits (see: The Master Prints, pls. 1 and 13 for example) do as much to mask or conceal as they reveal the artist at work. (For an in depth discussion of this aspect of Steichen's changing self-portraits see: Eduard Steichen: Artistic Practice and National Identity 1899-1923, Dr. Lucy L. Bowditch, doctorate dissertation, the University of Chicago, 1994).