- 157
Karl Struss
Description
- Karl Struss
- 'metropolitan tower--twilight'
Provenance
Christie's East, 6 May 1985, Sale 5879, Lot 228
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Exhibited
Buffalo, National Salon, February 1922
Los Angeles, Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles, Sixth International Salon, 1922
San Francisco, Pictorial Photographic Society of San Francisco, San Francisco Salon, 1922
New York, Museum of the City of New York, Views of New York--Old and New exhibited by Pictorial Photographers of America, November 1936
Literature
Another print of this image:
Susan and John Harvith, Karl Struss: Man with a Camera (Michigan, Cranbrook Academy of Art/Museum, 1976, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 33
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
As of this writing, it is believed that the print of Karl Struss's Metropolitan Tower---Twilight offered here is the only print of the image in this large exhibition format to appear at auction. The exhibition labels on the reverse document the print's inclusion in several 1922 photography salons: the National Salon, Buffalo; the Sixth International Salon, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Salon. This print was also included in Views of New York---Old and New at the Museum of the City of New York in 1936.
When Metropolitan Tower---Twilight was taken in 1909, it depicted what was, for a brief moment, the world's tallest building. Commissioned by Metropolitan Life's president John Rogers Hegeman, the tower was designed by architect Napoleon Le Brun in the Neo-Renaissance style and modeled after the Campanile of St. Mark's in Venice. Upon completion of the tower's gold cupola, Struss photographed the new building while standing eleven blocks away on the balustrade of B. Altman's Department Store.
The metropolis was a favorite subject of the Pictorialist photographers, who captured its architecture and skyline at different times of day or night, and with varying atmospheric effects. Metropolitan Tower---Twilight reflects Struss's interest in soft-focus views of New York's turn-of-the-century building boom, which included the city's changing skyline. Typical of his New York work, Metropolitan Tower---Twilight uses an object in the foreground to frame a distant object, thereby collapsing the space between them. His affinity for this approach led him to develop the Struss Pictorial Lens. The lens doubled the standard focal length for a 4 x 5-inch negative, producing a telephoto effect that simplified and reduced the illusion of depth in his photographs.
Struss continued to work in New York City, producing images for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar, until the outbreak of World War I. After a two-year stint in the military, Struss moved to Los Angeles where he worked for famed filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, first as a still photographer, and later as a cinematographer.