New York – Sotheby’s October 15-16th various-owners sale of Photographs will feature a number of masterworks by blue-chip American photographers from the first half of the 20th-century, including Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, and Walker Evans, as well as an assortment of notable 19th-century and contemporary photographs. The sale is expected to bring $6.7/9.9 million*. A press release for the single-owner offering of photographs, Photographs from the Collection of Nancy Richardson, on October 16th is also available.

The variety of photographs by Edward Weston will comprise the most significant offering of his work to come to auction in many years. These include his seminal Nautilus (est. $600/900,000), a very early state of the image, on matte-surface paper, from the collection of Alexandra R. Marshall. “We are thrilled to have this stunning Weston shell back at Sotheby’s,” said Denise Bethel, Director of the Photographs department. “When we sold this very print in these rooms in 1989, it fetched $115,500. This was a momentous, historic occasion—it was the first photograph ever to sell at auction, anywhere in the world, for more than $100,000.” Another shell study will be offered, Nautilus (Cross-Section) (est. $70/100,000), in addition to several Weston photographs originally from the collection of Weston’s friend and Carmel neighbor, Jean Kellogg. A beautiful nude study of Anita Brenner (back) that may be unique in platinum, made in Mexico in 1925 (pictured here, est. $350/500,000), comes originally from Brenner’s collection. Among the six Oceano dune studies from 1936 (estimates range from $30/50,000 to $200/300,000), two are originally from the collection of Zohmah Charlot, including an exceedingly rare white dune study. Another in this group, in addition to other Weston prints, comes originally from the collection of photographer, writer, and Weston friend Glen Fishback. Also notable among the Weston photographs in the sale is a rare group of four nude studies of Miriam Lerner from 1925, two previously unknown in Weston’s oeuvre, that were sent by the photographer to Lerner in the 1920s. Cunningham is represented by botanical studies; among these are two especially fine early prints of two signature images—a large signed print of the 1925 Magnolia Blossom (est. $250/350,000) with her Mills College label, and a scarce signed and mounted print of Tower of Jewels (pictured here, est. $200/300,000), also from 1925, the first early print of this image to have appeared at auction in decades. Most notable among the works by Dorothea Lange is what may well be the earliest print extant, rare in its full-frame format, of White Angel Breadline (est. $350/450,000), to be offered at auction. Chief among a number of works by Paul Strand, most originally from the collection of Dr. Erhard Frommhold of the Verlag der Kunst in Dresden, is his famous Family, Luzzara, Italy (pictured here, est. $150/250,000) from 1953. Several Walker Evans photographs are included in the sale, notably an often-published but rare print of his 1935 Breakfast Room, Belle Grove Plantation, White Chapel, Louisiana (est. $80/120,000). Among the outstanding 19th-century items is a half-plate daguerreotype of the Washington Monument, Baltimore, circa 1845, one of the best surviving examples (est. $50/70,000). A group of 10 mammoth-plate photographs by Carleton Watkins of scenes in California, Oregon, and Utah, including a particularly fine print of The Garrison, Columbia River (pictured here, est. $200/300,000), comes from the collection of Anthony Morse, III, and are almost certainly from among photographs de-accessioned by Harvard University in the 1960s. A scarce album of Watkins photographs from the 1880s of Kern County, California (est. $50/70,000) was originally owned by a Danish chocolate maker who visited San Francisco at the turn of the last century. A rare complete set of Alfred Stieglitz’s important photographic periodical Camera Work, published from 1903 to 1917, is estimated at $100/150,000. Gertrude Käsebier’s The Manger (est. $35,000-$50,000) from 1899, a pre-eminent Pictorialist image that is one of the photographer’s most important works, comes originally from the collection of photographer Charles Fox, who studied with Käsebier. A unique, large-format Photogram from 1939 by László Moholy-Nagy given by Moholy to Charles Niedringhaus, his student at Chicago’s School of Design and later a Knoll designer and executive, is estimated at $40/60,000 (pictured here).

The sale contains a number of important images by Ansel Adams, including an early print of Aspens, Northern New Mexico (est. $50/70,000). A print of the scarce Rose and Driftwood (est. $30/50,000) is also on offer. Irving Penn is represented by a number of works, including an oversized gelatin silver portrait of Marlene Dietrich (est. $30/50,000), dye-transfer prints of Poppy, Glowing Embers, New York (est. $80/120,000) and Frozen Food with Green Beans (est. $50/70,000). Among the post-1950 and contemporary photographs on offer are prints of several of Robert Frank’s key images, including three of icons from The Americans–New Orleans (Trolley), Chicago, and New Mexico US 285 (est. $25/35,000 each), gifts from Frank to donors who helped fund The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s purchase of prints from The Americans series for their collection; a rare, early print of Louis Faurer’s Park Avenue Garage (est. $30/50,000); several early and unique Peter Beard works, including an oversized print of Hog Ranch Front Lawn, Night Feeder (2:00 am) with Maureen Gallagher & Mbuno, Feb. 1987 (pictured here, est. $100/150,000); and Richard Avedon’s large print of James Lykins, Oil Field Worker, Rawson, North Dakota (est. $40/60,000), a gift to his In the American West series assistant Laura Wilson, and the only one of four prints in this size in private hands. Additional notable later works include an oversized dye-transfer print of Joel Sternfeld’s McLean, Virginia (est. $50/70,000), from the collection of the photographer’s brother; Lee Friedlander’s Jazz and Blues portfolio (est. $40/60,000); Robert Adams’s Berthoud, Colorado from his important Summer Nights series (est. $20/30,000); and a group of 20 Real Estate studies by Henry Wessel (est. $20/30,000). Other artists represented in this group are Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lewis Baltz, Francesca Woodman, Andres Serrano, Edward Ruscha, Elger Esser, Weng Fen, and Chen Jiagang. *Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Posted: 10|15|07 at 10:35 am. Filed under: Fine Art.