Sotheby’s will mark 50 years of its Photographs department with 50 Masterworks to Celebrate 50 Years of Sotheby’s Photographs, a two-part online sale of fifty images tracing the evolution of the medium across nearly two centuries. The sale is open for bidding from 12 to 22 April 2021, spanning 19th century pioneers, early 20th century artists, and post-war, fashion and contemporary photography.
The 19th century section is led by an archive of nearly 200 early photographs by William Henry Fox Talbot, estimated at $300,000 to $500,000. Gifted in the 1840s by Talbot to his half-sister, Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, the group passed down through the family for nearly two centuries and comes to auction for the first time. It comprises loose photographs, albums, The Pencil of Nature, Sun Pictures in Scotland and a personal sketchbook, with subjects ranging from Lacock Abbey to still lifes and family portraits.
Other early works include Carleton Watkins’ The Garrison, Columbia River, Oregon, estimated at $250,000 to $350,000; Eugène Atget’s Untitled (Male Nude), estimated at $100,000 to $150,000; and one of Gustave Le Gray’s most celebrated works, La Vague Brisée (The Breaking Wave), taken near Sète, France, in 1857, estimated at £80,000 to £120,000.
A group of works by pioneering women photographers includes a rare early print of Imogen Cunningham’s Triangles from 1928, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000, the earliest print of the image to come to market in more than two decades; Lee Miller’s Nude from 1930, the only example of the image to appear at auction; Anne Brigman’s The Dying Cedar, estimated at $12,000 to $18,000; and Hansel Mieth’s Rhesus Monkey, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.
Following Sotheby’s December 2020 record-setting sale of photographs by Ansel Adams, the auction offers an early print of his 1941 image Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, estimated at $500,000 to $700,000. Post-war highlights include an early print of Robert Frank’s US 90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas from The Americans, estimated at $400,000 to $600,000, alongside works by Edward Weston, Lee Friedlander, Roy De Carava and Yves Klein.
Fashion photography is represented by Richard Avedon’s Avedon/Paris portfolio from 1978, estimated at £150,000 to £250,000; Peter Lindbergh’s The Wild Ones, shot for Vogue in 1991, estimated at £40,000 to £60,000; and a platinum-palladium print of Irving Penn’s Harlequin Dress, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. Contemporary works include Sebastião Salgado’s Serra Pelada, Gold Mine, Brazil, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000; a work by Nobuyoshi Araki, estimated at £100,000 to £150,000; Martin Parr’s The Last Resort, estimated at £10,000 to £15,000; and Chris Levine’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Lightness of Being, estimated at £30,000 to £50,000.
(Press Release)
