Portrait photographer based in Cologne, August Sander assembled in parallel a large series of pictures of German people shown through their jobs, under the generic title Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts.
The highly social idea of this miner's son was to testify that the dignity of men could have survived the First World War. He published a selection of 60 of his Menschen in 1929 under the title Antlitz der Zeit (Faces of our time), anticipating by 26 years Steichen's great compilation of The Family of Man.
Handlanger, the brick wearer, is an important image in the Antlitz selection. The worker with a straight gaze performs his task without complaining about his burden in a natural attitude which excludes pride.
A 21 x 15 cm print dated 1927 of Handlanger mounted on paper and protected by a vellum was sold for £ 265K including premium by Sotheby's in London on 27 October 1999, in the first part of the sale of the Jammes collection. It is estimated $ 350K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 11, lot 16.
The same auction includes a 28 x 20 cm portrait of the painter Anton Räderscheit, lot 36 estimated $ 150K. Well introduced in the circles of progressive artists, Sander, who made several portraits of Otto Dix, was abused by the Nazis and many of his photographs were destroyed.
The highly social idea of this miner's son was to testify that the dignity of men could have survived the First World War. He published a selection of 60 of his Menschen in 1929 under the title Antlitz der Zeit (Faces of our time), anticipating by 26 years Steichen's great compilation of The Family of Man.
Handlanger, the brick wearer, is an important image in the Antlitz selection. The worker with a straight gaze performs his task without complaining about his burden in a natural attitude which excludes pride.
A 21 x 15 cm print dated 1927 of Handlanger mounted on paper and protected by a vellum was sold for £ 265K including premium by Sotheby's in London on 27 October 1999, in the first part of the sale of the Jammes collection. It is estimated $ 350K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 11, lot 16.
The same auction includes a 28 x 20 cm portrait of the painter Anton Räderscheit, lot 36 estimated $ 150K. Well introduced in the circles of progressive artists, Sander, who made several portraits of Otto Dix, was abused by the Nazis and many of his photographs were destroyed.
Results including premium :
Portrait of the brick wearer : $ 750K.
Portrait of the painter : $ 270K.
Portrait of the painter : $ 270K.
RSS Feed
