Helen Levitt

signed, dated, copyrighted, annotated 'NY,' and with numerical notations in pencil on the reverse, 1942 (A Way of Seeing, pl. 4; SFMoMA, pl. 33)

This photograph, on double-weight matte-surface paper, is in generally excellent condition. There is very minor edge and corner wear, with only very few attendant tiny losses of emulsion. On the reverse of the print, the following numbers are written by Levitt in pencil: '69' (underlined) and '4' (in a box). When examined under ultraviolet light, this print does not appear to fluoresce.
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.

The photograph offered here, like the best of Levitt's New York images, invokes the mysterious and special world of children, a world which James Agee once called 'a kingdom, with its own kinds of wild animal glamour' (A Way of Seeing, p. xiv).  Levitt's spontaneous and frequently bizarre juxtapositions, all captured on the city's streets, manage to somehow encompass the seemingly incompatible genres of photorealism and surrealism.

The poet Charles Henri Ford chose this image for the January 1943 issue of his Surrealist quarterly View, reproducing it with the title A Knight in Harlem. The issue in which this photograph appeared, called Americana Fantastica, included not only two photographs by Levitt, but also works by Joseph Cornell, George Platt Lynes, Virgil Thompson, and Florine Stettheimer, among others.  A Knight in Harlem was illustrated on a page spread across from Joseph Cornell's construction, Medici Slot Machine.  In this context, A Knight in Harlem is more than a photograph of a child in an improvised costume: it becomes a statement about the casual surreality of American life.      

In his introduction to Americana Fantastica, Ford's co-editor, Parker Tyler, attempted to define American Surrealism, or the American 'fantastic' as he called it.  It is 'great, rather than traditional,' he wrote. 'Above all, it is never professional . . . If there be any craft of the fantastic, it is acquired by the spur of the moment.'  These are tenets eloquently borne out by Levitt's A Knight in Harlem.