PHOTOGRAPHS

At Sotheby’s New York 

Auction 5 April

Public Exhibition 30 March – 4 April 

NEW YORK,  21 March 2017 – Sotheby’s spring auction of Photographs on 5 April in New York will offer more than 180 exceptional photographs that demonstrate the range of the medium from the 19th century to today. Of special note are masterpieces by Timothy O’Sullivan and William Bell, Ansel Adams, Robert Frank, Edward Weston and Alex Prager, together with rare works by Edward Steichen and F. Holland Day, among many others. The New York exhibition will be open to the public from 30 March through 4 April alongside the online-only auction: In Motion: Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge Sold to Benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Denver Art Museum, open for bidding from 24 March to 10 April. 

Leading the sale is Timothy O’Sullivan’s and William Bell’s, 'Photographs Showing Landscapes, Geological and Other Features, of Portions of the Western Territory of The United States, Obtained in Connection with Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian (Seasons Of 1871, 1872 And 1873)' (estimate $300/500,000*), known today simply as the Wheeler Survey.  In the years following the Civil War, America experienced a golden age of survey photography. O’Sullivan’s and Bell’s photographs in the present album are some of the most remarkable views of the American West ever created. The present album, consisting of the complete 50 photographs – 35 by O’Sullivan and 15 by Bell – is exceptionally rare and the first to appear at auction in over three decades.

Other notable early photographic works include William Henry Fox Talbot’s Sun Pictures in Scotland (estimate $30/50,000) recognized as the first photographically illustrated book completed for public sale, Horatio Ross’ pastoral landscape Untitled (Sea Coast Near Netherley) (estimate $20/30,000), as well as salt prints by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.

Turn of the century photography includes F. Holland Day’s haunting allegorical portrait St. Sebastian (estimate $200/300,000) an indisputable masterpiece demonstrating the artist’s unique vision and command of the platinum process. Another captivating platinum print is Edward Steichen’s early Self-Portrait (estimate $100/200,000) from circa 1900. In the intimate portrait, the artist’s face and suit are rendered with striking detail and impressive tonal range. Steichen’s self-portraits from this period are exceptionally rare.  Works by Eugène Atget, Heinrich Kühn, and Gertrude Käsebier are also featured.

Modernism is well represented throughout the sale. An impressive selection of iconic Ansel Adams photographs is highlighted by his powerful mural-sized Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, California (Winter Sunrise) (estimate $180/220,000) originally from the collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner, who shared with Adams a steadfast commitment to environmental conservation. Early prints of Edward Weston’s Shells (estimate $150/250,000) and Dunes – Oceano (estimate $100/200,000) exemplify the artist’s ability to experiment with different compositions, depth of field and exposure times while capturing the tonal quality of different surfaces.  Photographs by Josef Sudek, Rudolf Koppitz, Paul Outerbridge, and André Kertész are also featured.

Post-War masterpieces include Lewis Baltz’s Tract House #24 (estimate $30/50,000), a rare oversized print exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in 1973, and a signed lifetime print of Diane Arbus’s Young Boy with a Button Flag in a Pro-War Parade N. Y. C. (estimate $70/100,000).  Icons of fashion include photographs by Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Ormond Gigli, and Guy Bourdin.

Among the contemporary highlights is Alex Prager’s large-scale Simi Valley (estimate $30/50,000). Prager's intensely bold and brightly colored photograph evokes the culture and clothing of the 1950s and 1960s, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch, as well as the vibrant California landscape. Other significant contemporary offerings include Peter Beard’sDiary Page (estimate $30/50,000) and Rhino Roping (estimate $30/50,000), Robert Heinecken’s Recto/Verso (estimate $40/60,000) and photographs by David LaChapelle, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lucas Samaras, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Chuck Close.

In Motion: Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge Sold to Benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Denver Art Museum

The online-only sale offers a unique and exciting opportunity for established and new collectors alike to acquire photographs by the father of stop-motion photography. The timed-based, no-reserve online auction will present 70 lots with subjects ranging from lions, dogs and horses to athletes, dancers and acrobats.