Ilse Bing 1899-1998

Collection of Ilse Bing

Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

Acquired by Margaret W. Weston from the above, 1998

Another print of this image:

Nancy C. Barrett, Ilse Bing: Three Decades of Photography (New Orleans Museum of Art, 1985, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 39

The image offered here, as well as that in Lot 84 were made in 1932, during the decade Bing lived in Paris--the most productive and creative period of her photographic career.  A doctoral candidate in art history, Bing bought a Leica camera in 1929 as an aid to her study of German architecture.  Savoring the freedom the Leica gave her with its compact size and ease of use, Bing became more focused on photography, choosing it as her profession, much to the dismay of family and friends.  It was at the end of that year, when she attended a modern photography exhibition in Frankfurt, particularly admiring the work of Florence Henri, that she decided to leave Germany for Paris.  Within two years of her arrival in Paris, influential French critic and photographer Emmanuel Sougez would pronounce her 'Queen of the Leica.'

An original photograph for its time--a nighttime study with an air of mystery and unusual point of view--Avenue du Maine at Night is enlivened by the presence of the words in the liqueur advertisement coaxed from the surrounding darkness--'Regardez-moi . . .Desirez-moi. . . Degustez-moi' ('Look at me, Want me, Taste me').