Alfred Stieglitz

Lot 138 [CAMERA WORK] Group of fifteen photogravures and half-tones from Camera Work , including eight by Stieglitz (with four copies of The Pool, Deal ), one by Steichen, the balance by various artists. Most either full-page or on the original mounts . C Estimate $2,000-3,000 Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.

LOT 55 PROPERTY SOLD WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART TO BENEFIT ACQUISITION FUNDS ALFRED STIEGLITZ 1864-1946 THE TWO POPLARS, LAKE GEORGE with another Stieglitz photograph, The Dying Chestnut Tree, mounted on the reverse, 1934 (Greenough 1192 and 1550, each the full negative) 9 by 6 in. (22.9 by 15.2 cm.)

ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864-1946) The Steerage, 1907 large-format photogravure, printed 1915 image: 12 5/8 x 10 1/8in. (32.2 x 25.7cm.) sheet: 18 x 12 5/8in. (45.7 x 32cm.) Various private collections Camera Work, no. 36, 1911, pl. 9; Greenough, Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set, National Gallery of Art/Harry N. Abrams, 2002, cat. no. 310

ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864-1946) From the Back Window -- "291" -- N.Y., Summer 1914 platinum print signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'To Marie J. Rapp in friendship' in pencil (on the mount) image: 9¾ x 7 5/8in. (24.7 x 19.3cm.) sheet: 9 7/8 x 10in. (25 x 25.4cm.) mount: 19 x 14in. (48.3 x 35.5cm.) Swann Galleries, New York, November 5, 1981, lot 373 Modernist Masterworks to 1925 from 'the deLIGHTed eye', A Private Collection, International Center of Photography, New York, 1985, back cover; Yochelson, Alfred Stieglitz: New York, Seaport Museum, New York/Rizzoli/Skira, 2010, p. 64 Modernist Masterworks to 1925 from 'the deLIGHTed eye', A Private Collection, International Center of Photography, New York, May 15-June 16, 1985 Alfred Stieglitz is regarded as the single most influential figure in the development of early 20th-century American photography. He guided the remarkable transition from Pictorialism to modernism and made New York City an important center for both. As editor/publisher of Camera Notes, Camera Work and director of the Photo-Secession Gallery (later renamed '291'), Stieglitz was at the forefront of the battle to have photography accepted on equal terms with painting and he understood the importance of developing a distinctly 'American' style. It was with this in mind that Stieglitz made New York the subject of so many of his photographs, beginning as early as the 1890s. By 1910 Stieglitz was concentrating on subjects like the new Flatiron Building, train terminals, ferries and construction sites -- all, however, still in the soft-focus of Pictorialism. This print is an important example of how Stieglitz's style changed in a four-year period that included the Armory Show. After this ground-breaking exhibition, which included Duchamp's painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, Stieglitz abandoned Pictorialism. From the Back Window can be regarded as a transitional work -- an incorporation of what he learned from the show into his own work. Stieglitz was searching for basic forms in this back-alley view and trying to simplify and abstract them. His series of photographs from '291' are among his most prized, each a formal and objective study in delineating shapes and expressing structure. This print is charmingly inscribed to Marie Rapp, a secretary at '291', whom Stieglitz photographed on many occasions.

WhileGeorgia O'Keeffe was a favored subject of Stieglitz,thepresent lotis one of onlya few known prints of this image. The fabled union of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’’Keeffe was one of the great artistic partnerships in American history. When they met in 1916, Stieglitz was 52 and already a man of many accomplishments: photographer, publisher, gallery director, champion of American Modernism and world famous promoter of photography as fine art. On the other hand, O’’Keeffe was an unknown artist, teaching in Texas and only 28 years old. This portrait was taken in the first years of their infamous romance. It is a performance piece staged by the photographer and acted out by his willing muse. In 1917, after mounting his second exhibition of O’’Keeffe’’s art, Stieglitz closed his gallery, 291, and mailed the final issue of his legendary art journal Camera Work to its 37 remaining subscribers. He then proceeded to undergo a complete rebirth of both his art and his life. The agent of this change was his passionate collaboration with O’’Keeffe. Describing this miraculous life encounter, Stieglitz wrote to his friend the painter Arthur Dove the following: Since I saw you I have been living as I never lived before. – I have gone through a great deal – some very painful hours – but all intensely real. – O’’Keeffe is a constant source of wonder to me - like Nature itself – & all fine humans – there are some. – I know some. _ And every moment I am full of gratefulness that I am a great fortunate. – O’’Keeffe & I are One in a real sense…..Every moment is a happy eternity – sometimes – rarely – the moment is of intensest pain – but even that turns into a great glory. – We are both either intensely sane or mad children. – It makes no difference. In June of 1918 Stieglitz left his wife of twenty-five years and moved with O’’Keeffe into an apartment in Manhattan. It is in that small apartment that this rare and beautiful platinum palladium print was taken. Creating it was an act in which the photographer and the subject are “One in a real sense” - an artistic sense: He the director, she the embodiment of their primal passion. It is an “intensely sane” act full of wonder like “Nature itself.” Evocative planes of white, grey and black permeate the space infusing it with an other-worldliness. In one hand she holds a phallic-looking African spoon (exhibited by Stieglitz four years earlier at 291 and illustrated as pl. 45 in Greenough, Modern Art) , with the other she clenches her breast. Towards the end of her life, O’’ Keeffe recalled those early photo sessions: “I was photographed with a kind of heat and excitement and in a way wondered what it was all about.” O’’Keeffe gave the photograph that is being offered in the present lot to Doris Bry who was O’’Keeffe’’s assistant after Stieglitz’’s death and later her dealer and agent as well as friend. Writing about this infamous series that Stieglitz took of his lover (who became his second wife) Bry said: Although the Stieglitz portrait of O’’Keeffe inevitably has its roots in the photographer and his subject, the series of prints transcend the two individuals concerned and become a moving symbol of the range of possibilities life, and beauty inherent in human relationships. Stieglitz first publicly exhibited the pictures he’’d taken of O’’ Keeffe in a retrospective at the Anderson Galleries in Manhattan in 1921. Three years later they married one another. In 1946 America’’s greatest photographer died at the age of 82. As lovers he and his second wife’’s commitment sometimes faltered, as artists Stieglitz and O’’Keeffe were each other’’s strongest allies. In 1978 O’’Keeffe wrote “I believe it was the work that kept me with him—though I loved him as a human being, I put up with what seemed to me a good deal of contradictory nonsense because of what seemed clear and bright and wonderful.” 12 IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. ANTHONY TERRANA ALFRED STIEGLITZ Georgia O'Keeffe , 1919 Platinum palladium print. 9 1/2 x 7 5/8 in. (24.1 x 19.4 cm) ESTIMATE $300,000 - 500,000 PROVENANCE From the artist to the Collection of Georgia O'Keeffe Gifted to Doris Bry, New York Private Collection Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York LITERATURE Greenough, Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and his New York Galleries , fig. 156 Contact Specialist Request Condtion Report Recieve Email alerts WhileGeorgia O'Keeffe was a favored subject of Stieglitz,thepresent lotis one of onlya few known prints of this image. The fabled union of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’’Keeffe was one of the great artistic partnerships in American history. When they me... Read More... View catalogue Purchase catalogue Annual subscriptions