Photos 1900-1940
See also : Photo Photos in 1920s Far West Books Sport memorabilia Baseball Literature in French Poems and lyrics Sport images before 1945
Chronology : 1907 1926 1935 1936
Please note that the date in the subtitles below is the date of the print, when known
Chronology : 1907 1926 1935 1936
Please note that the date in the subtitles below is the date of the print, when known
1904-1942 The Photographic Archive of Baseball
2016 SOLD for $ 1.8M including premium
The practice of photography excites the amateurs. In 1904, Charles Conlon is working as a proofreader for the New York Evening Telegram. His line manager is in charge of improving the Spalding baseball guide. He invites Conlon to exercise his hobby on behalf of the company.
Until 1942 Conlon is the anonymous author of the most important photographs of baseball, published and re-published in magazines, guides and sports cards. All the top players in Major League are displayed in his work.
Conlon shoots all his views on the field. He observes the differentiation of actions depending of the player, their method to hold the ball or the bat. His early negatives are made on glass plates 5 x 7 ". The improvement of the techniques then allows the photographer to use the format 4 x 5" on glass and later on acetate.
The increase of sensitivity now makes possible the view of a speedy movement in close up. His image freezing a spectacular action by Ty Cobb on July 23, 1910 is a masterpiece of instant photography.
The 7,462 original negatives taken by Conlon during the 38 years of his photographic career are housed in 85 boxes, each one around shoebox size. They are sold together at lot 80082 by Heritage in Dallas on August 27 with a guide value of $ 1M.
This complete archive is unique, sensational and irreplaceable in the history of baseball throughout its period. The sale includes only the photographs and in no way the intellectual property rights. Please watch the video shared by Heritage.
Until 1942 Conlon is the anonymous author of the most important photographs of baseball, published and re-published in magazines, guides and sports cards. All the top players in Major League are displayed in his work.
Conlon shoots all his views on the field. He observes the differentiation of actions depending of the player, their method to hold the ball or the bat. His early negatives are made on glass plates 5 x 7 ". The improvement of the techniques then allows the photographer to use the format 4 x 5" on glass and later on acetate.
The increase of sensitivity now makes possible the view of a speedy movement in close up. His image freezing a spectacular action by Ty Cobb on July 23, 1910 is a masterpiece of instant photography.
The 7,462 original negatives taken by Conlon during the 38 years of his photographic career are housed in 85 boxes, each one around shoebox size. They are sold together at lot 80082 by Heritage in Dallas on August 27 with a guide value of $ 1M.
This complete archive is unique, sensational and irreplaceable in the history of baseball throughout its period. The sale includes only the photographs and in no way the intellectual property rights. Please watch the video shared by Heritage.
1905 The Favored Child of Pictorialism
2014 SOLD for $ 965K including premium
Alvin Langdon Coburn began his photographic career very young, with the support of his cousin F. Holland Day.
Pictorialism had been the last achievement of the nineteenth century, favoring atmosphere and privacy and neglecting the documentary interest. Coburn is one of the last Pictorialists, but his meticulous work in the darkroom allows new effects.
Made in 1905, Shadows and reflections, Venice, is his most famous image of that period. The small Venetian bridge is not identifiable. A woman wisely holds the strong point of the composition. A double exposure of the positive with two different techniques breaks realism in favor of dreams by introducing a warm shade and blurring the foreground reflections in the canal.
This picture has been published by Camera Work in 1908. In the same issue, an anonymous commentator who was probably Stieglitz treated Coburn of 'favored child', indirectly consecrating that this nonconformist was even ahead of the Photo Secession.
A print 36 x 29 cm was sold for $ 365K including premium at Christie's on 27 April 2004. This piece comes back for sale at Sotheby's in New York on December 11, lot 11 estimated $ 350K.
Coburn continued his pioneering work. In 1913, Octopus is his masterpiece. This image of a park is figurative, but the reinterpretation of the paths as arms of an octopus fascinates the viewer. In 1917, his Vortographs achieved through a complex set of mirrors anticipate the abstract and geometric researches of Bauhaus, Constructivism and Man Ray altogether.
A Vortograph 27 x 20 cm was sold for $ 600K including premium by Sotheby's on April 1, 2014. Another one is estimated $ 300K by Sotheby's on December 11, lot 12 in the same sale as above.
RESULTS :
View of Venice : $ 965K including premium.
Vortograph : unsold
Pictorialism had been the last achievement of the nineteenth century, favoring atmosphere and privacy and neglecting the documentary interest. Coburn is one of the last Pictorialists, but his meticulous work in the darkroom allows new effects.
Made in 1905, Shadows and reflections, Venice, is his most famous image of that period. The small Venetian bridge is not identifiable. A woman wisely holds the strong point of the composition. A double exposure of the positive with two different techniques breaks realism in favor of dreams by introducing a warm shade and blurring the foreground reflections in the canal.
This picture has been published by Camera Work in 1908. In the same issue, an anonymous commentator who was probably Stieglitz treated Coburn of 'favored child', indirectly consecrating that this nonconformist was even ahead of the Photo Secession.
A print 36 x 29 cm was sold for $ 365K including premium at Christie's on 27 April 2004. This piece comes back for sale at Sotheby's in New York on December 11, lot 11 estimated $ 350K.
Coburn continued his pioneering work. In 1913, Octopus is his masterpiece. This image of a park is figurative, but the reinterpretation of the paths as arms of an octopus fascinates the viewer. In 1917, his Vortographs achieved through a complex set of mirrors anticipate the abstract and geometric researches of Bauhaus, Constructivism and Man Ray altogether.
A Vortograph 27 x 20 cm was sold for $ 600K including premium by Sotheby's on April 1, 2014. Another one is estimated $ 300K by Sotheby's on December 11, lot 12 in the same sale as above.
RESULTS :
View of Venice : $ 965K including premium.
Vortograph : unsold
1907-1930 The Cultural Heritage of the American Indians
2012 SOLD 2.9 M$ including premium
The work of Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, should be part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Without him, two worlds would never have met: the authentic traditions of American Indians, and photography.
When Curtis began to visit the western America, the tribal populations had declined dramatically, and many of them were snapped up by other forms of civilization. This is the end of an era.
When Curtis began recording thousands of photographs, this technique was already fully mastered. The photographer is no more a chemist or an experimenter, he can concentrate on his subject. This is the beginning of another era.
Compare dates: the first issue of Camera Work is published by Stieglitz in 1903. The first delivery of The North American Indian by Curtis, sold by subscription, in 1907.
Tirelessly, Curtis visited the 80 most authentic tribes. His friendship with some chiefs was facilitated by his application to use their own language, opening to him the path for the other communities.
When the publishing venture of The North American Indian ends in 1930 because of financial difficulties, Curtis had managed the most extraordinary and unsurpassed photographic documentary of all time: 2200 selected photographs distributed among twenty volumes of text and twenty portfolios.
The copy for sale by Christie's in New York on April 10 is complete. Kept in excellent condition, it is certainly the finest surviving example of this unusual work.
This lot is estimated $ 1M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Its exceptional freshness enabled this highly important book to reach $ 2.9 million including premium.
When Curtis began to visit the western America, the tribal populations had declined dramatically, and many of them were snapped up by other forms of civilization. This is the end of an era.
When Curtis began recording thousands of photographs, this technique was already fully mastered. The photographer is no more a chemist or an experimenter, he can concentrate on his subject. This is the beginning of another era.
Compare dates: the first issue of Camera Work is published by Stieglitz in 1903. The first delivery of The North American Indian by Curtis, sold by subscription, in 1907.
Tirelessly, Curtis visited the 80 most authentic tribes. His friendship with some chiefs was facilitated by his application to use their own language, opening to him the path for the other communities.
When the publishing venture of The North American Indian ends in 1930 because of financial difficulties, Curtis had managed the most extraordinary and unsurpassed photographic documentary of all time: 2200 selected photographs distributed among twenty volumes of text and twenty portfolios.
The copy for sale by Christie's in New York on April 10 is complete. Kept in excellent condition, it is certainly the finest surviving example of this unusual work.
This lot is estimated $ 1M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Its exceptional freshness enabled this highly important book to reach $ 2.9 million including premium.
1925 The Perfect Forms of Miriam
2017 SOLD for $ 870K including premium
In 1923 Edward Weston embarks for Mexico with Tina Modotti and one of his sons. He leaves behind him in the United States his wife Flora and their three other sons. The highly active Tina is his sponsor and model and helps the photographer to enter the socialist circles of Mexico City.
The encounter with the avant-garde artists of Mexico transforms Edward's artistic vision, now oriented towards the quest for perfect forms in ordinary artefacts and in bodies. Tina is 27 years old. She is slim and pretty. Edward studies the details such as her hands crossed on the dress and he also photographs her in full nudity.
Tina probably does not respond to Edward's aesthetic ideal. He resumes a contact with Miriam Lerner whom he had briefly met before leaving for Mexico. Miriam's gorgeous body between shoulders and buttocks meets the erotic and artistic desires of the photographer. They live together a passionate love in the early months of 1925 in Edendale, Los Angeles, before he comes back to Mexico City where Tina did not stop working for his glory.
A 13 x 24 cm matte silver print showing the waving geometric shapes of Miriam's nude back in a reclining position was sold for $ 1,6M including premium by Sotheby's on April 7, 2008 over a lower estimate of $ 600K.
On April 6 in New York, Christie's sells a highly rare palladium print 18 x 23 cm pencil dated 1925 and located in Edendale, lot 7 estimated $ 400K, not inscribed to Miriam but originally presented by the artist to her.
This study shows the nude body in a twist resting on both shoulders and on the edge of a buttock. The use of palladium brings a lustrous surface with very subtle hues in the grays for a soft vision that reinforces the suggestive eroticism of this headless chest.
The encounter with the avant-garde artists of Mexico transforms Edward's artistic vision, now oriented towards the quest for perfect forms in ordinary artefacts and in bodies. Tina is 27 years old. She is slim and pretty. Edward studies the details such as her hands crossed on the dress and he also photographs her in full nudity.
Tina probably does not respond to Edward's aesthetic ideal. He resumes a contact with Miriam Lerner whom he had briefly met before leaving for Mexico. Miriam's gorgeous body between shoulders and buttocks meets the erotic and artistic desires of the photographer. They live together a passionate love in the early months of 1925 in Edendale, Los Angeles, before he comes back to Mexico City where Tina did not stop working for his glory.
A 13 x 24 cm matte silver print showing the waving geometric shapes of Miriam's nude back in a reclining position was sold for $ 1,6M including premium by Sotheby's on April 7, 2008 over a lower estimate of $ 600K.
On April 6 in New York, Christie's sells a highly rare palladium print 18 x 23 cm pencil dated 1925 and located in Edendale, lot 7 estimated $ 400K, not inscribed to Miriam but originally presented by the artist to her.
This study shows the nude body in a twist resting on both shoulders and on the edge of a buttock. The use of palladium brings a lustrous surface with very subtle hues in the grays for a soft vision that reinforces the suggestive eroticism of this headless chest.
1926 Africa in Paris
2017 SOLD for € 2.7M including premium
In 1920 Félix Fénéon asks a disturbing question : les arts lointains iront-ils au Louvre (will the distant arts go to the Louvre) ? In the same trend the avant-gardes are imagining new artistic styles reusing African elements.
The Demoiselles d'Avignon whose heads resemble masks appears from then as a precursor of modern art. On the advice of André Breton, Jacques Doucet bought this painting from Picasso in December 1924. Picasso denied an African influence on that seminal example of his own primitive art.
Man Ray is much at ease in this intellectual bustle. In 1924 he takes a photo titled Black and white for which he juxtaposes an African mask with a nude statuette from the German Renaissance.
Another photograph by the same artist appears in May 1926 in the French edition of Vogue magazine. Titled Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène (Face in mother-of-pearl and ebony mask), it displays Kiki de Montparnasse with a Baule mask. With her eyes closed, Man Ray's muse has her head resting on a table on which the African object is held upright by her hand.
This image which is simply composed of two perfect ovals opens a vision of the opposites in the best surrealist tradition : white and black, Europe and Africa, horizontal and vertical, living and object. Its title became Noire et Blanche in 1928 without the agreement of the author.
The very first silver print of this photograph, 21 x 28 cm, was carefully prepared by the artist including many reworks to meet his ideal of perfection. Immediately acquired by Doucet, it makes Noire et Blanche appear as a response by Man Ray to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This print is estimated € 1M for sale by Christie's in Paris on November 9, lot 8.
Always keen to his own promotion, Picasso no longer neglects the African trend. He highlights a posteriori the Demoiselles d'Avignon as the cornerstone of Cubism and looks for a young blonde muse with a flat nose. She will be Marie-Thérèse.
The Demoiselles d'Avignon whose heads resemble masks appears from then as a precursor of modern art. On the advice of André Breton, Jacques Doucet bought this painting from Picasso in December 1924. Picasso denied an African influence on that seminal example of his own primitive art.
Man Ray is much at ease in this intellectual bustle. In 1924 he takes a photo titled Black and white for which he juxtaposes an African mask with a nude statuette from the German Renaissance.
Another photograph by the same artist appears in May 1926 in the French edition of Vogue magazine. Titled Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène (Face in mother-of-pearl and ebony mask), it displays Kiki de Montparnasse with a Baule mask. With her eyes closed, Man Ray's muse has her head resting on a table on which the African object is held upright by her hand.
This image which is simply composed of two perfect ovals opens a vision of the opposites in the best surrealist tradition : white and black, Europe and Africa, horizontal and vertical, living and object. Its title became Noire et Blanche in 1928 without the agreement of the author.
The very first silver print of this photograph, 21 x 28 cm, was carefully prepared by the artist including many reworks to meet his ideal of perfection. Immediately acquired by Doucet, it makes Noire et Blanche appear as a response by Man Ray to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This print is estimated € 1M for sale by Christie's in Paris on November 9, lot 8.
Always keen to his own promotion, Picasso no longer neglects the African trend. He highlights a posteriori the Demoiselles d'Avignon as the cornerstone of Cubism and looks for a young blonde muse with a flat nose. She will be Marie-Thérèse.
1927 Weston on Beach
2010 SOLD 1.08 M$ including premium
Edward Weston loved women, beach and photography. He had the idea to make minimalist images with great sharpness.
When details are involved, everything is mixed, a different world unfolds. A dune resembles a woman's back and the back of a woman resembles a dune. Thus an image of 1925, 13 x 24 cm, showing a naked woman from shoulders to buttocks reached $ 1.6 million including premium at Sotheby's on April 7, 2008.
In 1927, the artist is interested in shells. The most famous photograph of this series shows an empty nautilus, seen by the side of its aperture, well lit before a black background. This picture is disturbing in its simplicity. It is art. A copy of the nautilus of Weston, 24 x 18 cm, was sold $ 1.1 million including premium on October 15, 2007, by Sotheby's. It had been printed on matte paper on the year of the negative.
On April 13 in New York, the same auction house is selling another copy of the same photograph with the same characteristics, estimated $ 300K. The history of this copy had begun with emotion. It was offered for $ 10 in a gallery of San Francisco. A young client loved it at first sight, but she had no money for such a purchase. She was to pay by monthly installments of 50 cents before she could finally got it. This lot was unknown to the market as it remained in her family until now.
The image is shown as thumbnail above the press release shared by News-Antique.
POST SALE COMMENT
Is this an extraordinary regularity of the photographic market, or a mere coincidence? Sold $ 1.08 million including premium, this copy of the Nautilus of Weston reached almost the same price as the other copy sold in 2007.
When details are involved, everything is mixed, a different world unfolds. A dune resembles a woman's back and the back of a woman resembles a dune. Thus an image of 1925, 13 x 24 cm, showing a naked woman from shoulders to buttocks reached $ 1.6 million including premium at Sotheby's on April 7, 2008.
In 1927, the artist is interested in shells. The most famous photograph of this series shows an empty nautilus, seen by the side of its aperture, well lit before a black background. This picture is disturbing in its simplicity. It is art. A copy of the nautilus of Weston, 24 x 18 cm, was sold $ 1.1 million including premium on October 15, 2007, by Sotheby's. It had been printed on matte paper on the year of the negative.
On April 13 in New York, the same auction house is selling another copy of the same photograph with the same characteristics, estimated $ 300K. The history of this copy had begun with emotion. It was offered for $ 10 in a gallery of San Francisco. A young client loved it at first sight, but she had no money for such a purchase. She was to pay by monthly installments of 50 cents before she could finally got it. This lot was unknown to the market as it remained in her family until now.
The image is shown as thumbnail above the press release shared by News-Antique.
POST SALE COMMENT
Is this an extraordinary regularity of the photographic market, or a mere coincidence? Sold $ 1.08 million including premium, this copy of the Nautilus of Weston reached almost the same price as the other copy sold in 2007.
1932 The Eye was in the City
2012 SOLD 1.48 M$ including premium
Herbert Bayer was only 25 years old when he became an instructor at the Bauhaus in 1925. As such, he is a pioneer of graphics for advertising.
Freeing himself from the influence of Moholy-Nagy, he sees photography as a medium for an expressive composition and not as a technical feat. Far ahead of his time, he appreciates that the most disturbing images shall have the biggest impact. By this trend, we might be tempted to link his art, wrongly, to surrealism.
Executed in 1932, Lonely Metropolitan is a photomontage composed of photographic collages accentuated by black and white gouaches.
In the courtyard of a building, two hands are raised alongside. They are stopped at the top of the sleeve. Each palm is centered with the photograph of an eye, with the eyebrow superseding the upper horizontal line of the hand. The position of both eyes simulates a gaze.
The original photomontage or Fotoplastik, 41 x 30 cm, is estimated $ 300K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 12.
Bayer edited this image from 1936 onwards.
I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Forget the estimate. This photomontage is rare and important, not only for understanding the artistic process of Bayer, but especially to mark the essential contribution of the Bauhaus in the construction of the modern world. It was sold $ 1.48 million including premium.
In the same sale, the photo of a hand by Moholy-Nagy was sold at the same price, $ 1.48 million including premium.
Freeing himself from the influence of Moholy-Nagy, he sees photography as a medium for an expressive composition and not as a technical feat. Far ahead of his time, he appreciates that the most disturbing images shall have the biggest impact. By this trend, we might be tempted to link his art, wrongly, to surrealism.
Executed in 1932, Lonely Metropolitan is a photomontage composed of photographic collages accentuated by black and white gouaches.
In the courtyard of a building, two hands are raised alongside. They are stopped at the top of the sleeve. Each palm is centered with the photograph of an eye, with the eyebrow superseding the upper horizontal line of the hand. The position of both eyes simulates a gaze.
The original photomontage or Fotoplastik, 41 x 30 cm, is estimated $ 300K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 12.
Bayer edited this image from 1936 onwards.
I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Forget the estimate. This photomontage is rare and important, not only for understanding the artistic process of Bayer, but especially to mark the essential contribution of the Bauhaus in the construction of the modern world. It was sold $ 1.48 million including premium.
In the same sale, the photo of a hand by Moholy-Nagy was sold at the same price, $ 1.48 million including premium.
1935 The Later Story of the North American Indian
2012 SOLD 1.44 M$ including premium
The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis is now considered as the unsurpassed masterpiece of documentary photography, both scientifically and artistically. It was not always the case.
Started with enthusiasm in 1907 during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the project had lasted too long.
When it was finally completed in 1930, with its twenty portfolios of large size photogravures 58 x 24 cm and twenty volumes of text 31 x 24 cm also illustrated with photographs, it was already a failure. With 222 subscribers, Curtis was far from achieving the target of 500 copies given to him by his sponsor, the banker Morgan.
The fabulous editing material of Curtis was purchased in 1935 by a dealer of rare books based in Boston, Charles E. Lauriat, who appreciated the importance of this work. Lauriat became the owner of few unsold complete copies, of all the original copper plates and of 285,000 prints.
With these elements, Lauriat assembled additional complete copies, by reprinting as necessary from the original plates the pages that had been outprinted, bringing the grand total to 291. Lauriat's death in 1937 put an end to the most outstanding photographic edition of all time. The Curtis-Lauriat material, rediscovered in the early 1970s, has not been dispersed.
On October 4 in New York, Swann sells a full set of The North American Indian, in which text volumes printed by Lauriat are completing portfolios prepared by Curtis. This copy has a rare feature: all images of three portfolios including number I are signed by Curtis.
This lot is estimated $ 1.25 M. It is illustrated in the release shared by Artdaily.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Swann Galleries.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good price, $ 1.2 million before fees, 1.44 million including premium, especially when considering that the books of texts were not from the first issue.
Started with enthusiasm in 1907 during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the project had lasted too long.
When it was finally completed in 1930, with its twenty portfolios of large size photogravures 58 x 24 cm and twenty volumes of text 31 x 24 cm also illustrated with photographs, it was already a failure. With 222 subscribers, Curtis was far from achieving the target of 500 copies given to him by his sponsor, the banker Morgan.
The fabulous editing material of Curtis was purchased in 1935 by a dealer of rare books based in Boston, Charles E. Lauriat, who appreciated the importance of this work. Lauriat became the owner of few unsold complete copies, of all the original copper plates and of 285,000 prints.
With these elements, Lauriat assembled additional complete copies, by reprinting as necessary from the original plates the pages that had been outprinted, bringing the grand total to 291. Lauriat's death in 1937 put an end to the most outstanding photographic edition of all time. The Curtis-Lauriat material, rediscovered in the early 1970s, has not been dispersed.
On October 4 in New York, Swann sells a full set of The North American Indian, in which text volumes printed by Lauriat are completing portfolios prepared by Curtis. This copy has a rare feature: all images of three portfolios including number I are signed by Curtis.
This lot is estimated $ 1.25 M. It is illustrated in the release shared by Artdaily.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Swann Galleries.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good price, $ 1.2 million before fees, 1.44 million including premium, especially when considering that the books of texts were not from the first issue.
1935 The Facile Muse of Eluard
2017 SOLD for € 820K including premium
Poets and artists need a muse. Nusch is an acrobat at the Grand-Guignol when she meets by chance René Char and Paul Eluard in 1930. She is 24 years old. Paul and Nusch do not leave each other. They marry in 1934.
For the poet Nusch is the ideal woman whose body is confused with the forces of nature. She is the "tranquille sève nue" !quiet naked sap) of his declaration of love. While Paul composes his poems, he entrusts his muse to Man Ray, the photographer of the surrealist group.
The collection of poems titled Facile is published in 1935. Its seven double pages are imbrications shocking in that time of the pantheist text and of the 24 x 18 cm photos of the nude body of Nusch. Printed in héliogravure, these twelve photos by Man Ray mark the variety of his know-how with lighting effects, solarizations and silhouettes.
Paul receives one of the five hors commerce copies on Imperial Japanese paper. Paul Bonet realizes in 1943 a surrealistic binding by drawing the intertwined silhouettes of the hands that the two lovers are alternately posing on his maquette.
The copy has been dedicated to the poet by Nusch and especially by Man Ray who expresses in words their close collaboration and friendship. Man Ray adds silver prints of three photos from the book as well as an original rayograph in superimposition of a solarized nude of Nusch and six smaller photos.
The book is estimated € 500K for sale by Christie's in Paris on October 19, lot 23.
For the poet Nusch is the ideal woman whose body is confused with the forces of nature. She is the "tranquille sève nue" !quiet naked sap) of his declaration of love. While Paul composes his poems, he entrusts his muse to Man Ray, the photographer of the surrealist group.
The collection of poems titled Facile is published in 1935. Its seven double pages are imbrications shocking in that time of the pantheist text and of the 24 x 18 cm photos of the nude body of Nusch. Printed in héliogravure, these twelve photos by Man Ray mark the variety of his know-how with lighting effects, solarizations and silhouettes.
Paul receives one of the five hors commerce copies on Imperial Japanese paper. Paul Bonet realizes in 1943 a surrealistic binding by drawing the intertwined silhouettes of the hands that the two lovers are alternately posing on his maquette.
The copy has been dedicated to the poet by Nusch and especially by Man Ray who expresses in words their close collaboration and friendship. Man Ray adds silver prints of three photos from the book as well as an original rayograph in superimposition of a solarized nude of Nusch and six smaller photos.
The book is estimated € 500K for sale by Christie's in Paris on October 19, lot 23.
1935 Color in her Eyes
2017 SOLD for € 750K including premium
In 1935 Man Ray prepares his painting A l'heure de l'Observatoire - Les Amoureux which is his major contribution to surrealism. The bright red lips floating above the landscape have the contours of a couple of nude stacked bodies.
The artist reserves the painting for the dream images and preferentially uses photography for the compositions based on reality. This champion of eroticism regrets the lack of colors in art photography. The autochrome and the dufaycolor are only usable in small size. Man Ray tries the best trichrome process but abandons immediately because the technical difficulty slows down the creativity.
Man Ray then tries the colored pencils over black and white prints. At the very beginning of photography, the miniaturists converted their business into photography by watercoloring edition photos, bringing an illusion of realism that appealed to customers. The experiment by Man Ray is a rare application in his time of a similar practice in large format.
On October 19 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Tearful woman, black and white silver print 23 x 18 cm realized and hand colored by Man Ray and dated 1935, lot 31 estimated € 300K.
The colors are varied and charming. The facial skin is smooth and pink. Under the carefully made up eyebrows, the eyes look upward, filled to the wet just before the tears drop. The deep red mouth is half open, showing that the gaze expresses emotion and not grief. The identity of the model is unknown.
According to Sotheby's press release, only one other print is extant. Dated 1936 and of the same format as the photo for sale by Sotheby's, it had belonged to Robert Mapplethorpe. It was sold by Christie's on May 17, 2017 for $ 2.17M including premium over a lower estimate of $ 400K.
This attempt was not really followed. The technical progress of color photography suggests for soon more direct processes. The Kodachrome for slides in cinema format is released in 1935 and the negative Kodacolor film in 1942. However, it was not until the 1970s that William Eggleston launched the color photo art.
The artist reserves the painting for the dream images and preferentially uses photography for the compositions based on reality. This champion of eroticism regrets the lack of colors in art photography. The autochrome and the dufaycolor are only usable in small size. Man Ray tries the best trichrome process but abandons immediately because the technical difficulty slows down the creativity.
Man Ray then tries the colored pencils over black and white prints. At the very beginning of photography, the miniaturists converted their business into photography by watercoloring edition photos, bringing an illusion of realism that appealed to customers. The experiment by Man Ray is a rare application in his time of a similar practice in large format.
On October 19 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Tearful woman, black and white silver print 23 x 18 cm realized and hand colored by Man Ray and dated 1935, lot 31 estimated € 300K.
The colors are varied and charming. The facial skin is smooth and pink. Under the carefully made up eyebrows, the eyes look upward, filled to the wet just before the tears drop. The deep red mouth is half open, showing that the gaze expresses emotion and not grief. The identity of the model is unknown.
According to Sotheby's press release, only one other print is extant. Dated 1936 and of the same format as the photo for sale by Sotheby's, it had belonged to Robert Mapplethorpe. It was sold by Christie's on May 17, 2017 for $ 2.17M including premium over a lower estimate of $ 400K.
This attempt was not really followed. The technical progress of color photography suggests for soon more direct processes. The Kodachrome for slides in cinema format is released in 1935 and the negative Kodacolor film in 1942. However, it was not until the 1970s that William Eggleston launched the color photo art.
1936 Portrait of a Tearful Woman, photo by Man Ray
2017 SOLD for $ 2.17M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
