August Sander (1876-1964)

Vintage silver print, mounted on original studio card. The photographer's studio blindstamp at the lower left of the image. Signed and dated in pencil on the mount.

From the family of Dr. Fritz Husten.

Gruber, L. & Misselbeck, R. 1984 p. 366 (variant).

A semi-glossy print in superb condition overall. One very clear stress mark is unfortunately positioned on the shoulder of the male sitter in an area very close to the centre of the image. A group of very light parallel scratches run from the head of the female sitter to the lower left corner and there are other, even lighter parallel marks scattered around the print surface. An excellent print.
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The unique double portrait of Dr. Fritz and Mathilde Husten was made in 1928 in Sander's studio in Cologne.  Fritz Husten was the art director of a famous publishing house in Cologne and well acquainted with such photographers as Hannes Maria Flach, Ulrich Hösel and August Sander.  He married Mathilde Causemann in 1926.  Until 1933, when Husten was appointed to the Ulstein Verlag in Berlin, the couple took an active part in the artistic scene in the Rhineland.  Fritz Husten died in Buchenwald in 1946.  Mathilde became a writer and lived in Ahrweiler (Rhineland) after the war.

Portraits of couples were among the favourite subjects of the contemporary avantgarde.  Among Sander's examples are Martha and Otto Dix and Tata and Heinrich Hoerle.  The portrait offered here shows his characteristic interest in physiognomy.
The negative to this print is not known to survive.