Edward S. Curtis & Irving Penn Shine in Fall 2019 Classic & Contemporary Photographs

Our Thursday, October 17 sale of Classic & Contemporary Photographs featured a broad range of photographic material. “The sale cast a wide net with icons of popular culture, important historical images and classic masterpieces of fine art photography,” noted Daile Kaplan, the house’s Director of Photographs & Photobooks.

Edward S. Curtis

Edward S. Curtis, Prayer to the Stars, orotone, image of a Native American man facing away from the viewer with his hands raised above his head, 1904.
Edward S. Curtis, Prayer to the Stars, orotone, 1904. Sold for $21,250, a record for the image.

Edward S. Curtis’s portfolios and orotones attracted robust bidding. Highlights included Prayer to the Stars, orotone plate, 1904, that earned a record for the image $21,250; The North American Indian, Portfolio II, with 33 photogravures, 1908, which reached $27,500; and The North American Indian, Portfolio IX, 25 photogravures, 1913, which brought $13,750.

Fine Art Photography

Irving Penn, American Ballet Theatre, platinum-palladium print of members of the 1947 ABT company, 1947.
Irving Penn, American Ballet Theatre, platinum-palladium print, 1947, printed 1968. Sold for $13,750.

Irving Penn’s sumptuous platinum-palladium print Cuzco Children, Peru, December, 1948, printed 1978, led the sale at $93,750. Also by among the top lots was Penn’s American Ballet Theatre, platinum-palladium print, 1947, 1968, which brought $18,750. Further fine art photography included Roy DeCarava’s Boy with Bowed Head, silver print, 1961, printed early 1970s, at $17,500.

Documentary Photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gestapo informer recognized by a woman she had denounced, Dessau, Germany, ferrotyped silver print, 1945.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gestapo informer recognized by a woman she had denounced, Dessau, Germany, ferrotyped silver print, 1945, printed 1947.

Historical images included Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Gestapo informer recognized by a woman she had denounced, Dessau, Germany, ferrotyped silver print, 1945, printed 1947, which brought $42,500, a record for the image, and W. Eugene Smith’s Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, silver print, 1971-73, at $13,750.

Dorothea Lange, San Francisco Waterfront (Demonstration), silver print
Dorothea Lange, San Francisco Waterfront (Demonstration), silver print, 1934. Sold for $20,000.

Dorothea Lange was present with San Francisco Waterfront (Demonstration), silver print, 1934 ($20,000), and Migrant Mother, silver print, 1936, printed circa 1965 ($18,750). Also of note was a collection of 54 silver prints on carte-postale paper depicting the architecture of Cuzco, Peru by Martin Chambi, which earned $15,000.

Contemporary Photography

Joel Sternfield, McLean, Virginia, December 4, 1978, dye-transfer print, of a pumpkin field with a house on fire in the background, 1978.
Joel Sternfeld, McLean, Virginia, December 4, 1978, dye-transfer print, 1978, printed 1984. Sold for $17,500.

Colorful works by contemporary photographers featured John Divola’s Five Prints, 1983-86, a complete portfolio of dye-transfer prints that earned $20,000, and McLean, Virginia, December 4, 1978, dye transfer print, 1978, printed 1984, by Joel Sternfeld brought $17,500.

Vernacular Photography

A black and white image of a Lucky Strike Cigarettes factory at night, 1939.
An archive of 275 documentary photographs associated with the 1939 New York World’s Fair, silver prints, 1939.

The popular vernacular section saw competitive bidding for albums and folios documenting life in Asia and the South Seas in the late nineteenth century ($6,250), the 1939 World’s Fair ($6,250), and press photographs including images from the Great Depression ($4,000), the Yalta and Tehran Conferences ($813), as well as the Vietnam War ($6,000). 

Browse the complete list of results from our October 17, 2019 sale of Classic & Contemporary Photographs.

More about consigning with Swann.

October 22, 2019
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Category: Photographs & Photobooks
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