Edward Weston

platinum or palladium print, signed, dated, and annotated 'Mexico' by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, mounted along the top edge only to a buff-colored mount, signed, initialed, titled, dated, annotated 'Mexico,' and numbered '3/50' and '6' by him in pencil on the mount, matted, 1924, no. 3 in a projected edition of 50; accompanied by a charcoal and gouache painting on laid paper by JEAN CHARLOT, annotated 'Fot. Silva,' titled 'Horsie,' and inscribed 'To Edward, my first boss' by the artist with paint in the image, accompanied by the original mat and mat backboard, inscribed 'To my horsie-horsie little Jean--with love, Xmas 1935, "Uncle" Ed'  by Edward Weston in pencil and with a M. H. de Young Memorial Museum letterpress 'Horse Show' exhibition label, with typed credit, title, number, and name of the owner, Edward Weston, on the reverse (2)

The photograph:

The photographer to his sister, Mary Weston Seaman

By descent to her daughter, Jeannette Seaman

By descent to her nephew, John W. Longstreth

The painting:

Jean Charlot to Edward Weston, 1924

The photographer to his niece, Jeannette Seaman, 1935

By descent to her nephew, John W. Longstreth

The photograph:

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister, January - March 1978, and traveling to:

New York, International Center of Photography, July - September 1978; and

The Oakland Museum, February - March 1979

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life, February - July 2004, and traveling to:

Oregon, Portland Art Museum, September - November 2004

Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum, January - April 2005; and

Rochester, George Eastman House, April - September 2005

The painting:

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Horse Show: Horses in Art from Ancient Times to the Present Day, November 1932 - January 1933

This print:

Kathy Kelsey Foley, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister (The Dayton Art Institute, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 43

Alexander Lee Nyerges, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (The Dayton Art Institute, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 56 and pl. 15

Other prints of this photograph:

Conger 139

Anita Brenner, Idols Behind Altars (New York, 1929), fig. 27

Amy Conger, Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923-1926 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1983, in conjunction with the exhibition), fig. 7

This early, warm-toned platinum print, on a large, thin buff-colored card mount, is in generally excellent condition. As is typical of some early mounted Weston prints, a strip of darkened adhesive on the reverse is just barely visible across the top of the print. The edges are very lightly rubbed. The mount is age-darkened at the periphery. The corners are rounded from light wear, and there is tiny paper loss at the lower left, cutting off a small number '6.' The painting is generally excellent condition. The watercolor, in brown paper tape corners, has become loose from its original mount.
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.

Taken in 1924, Caballito de Cuarenta Centavos (The Forty-Cent Horse) is one of Weston's earliest still-life compositions and reflects his love of Mexican juguetes (toys).  He photographed this painted wooden horse against a woven mat, focusing on the horse's head and the strong arch of its neck.  Weston mentions the work in his journal on 30 September 1924: 'Several negatives printed are new, made during this last cloudy week when I turned to my camera for diversion and consolation.  Still-lifes they are, and pleasing ones: two fishes and a bird on a silver screen; head of a horse against my petate; chayotes in a painted wooden bowl.  The animals of course are from the puestos . . . the horse is Chinese in feeling--a 7^th century porcelain perhaps!' (Daybooks, Mexico, 30 September 1924). 

Weston's good friend, the French artist Jean Charlot, was immediately enamored of the 'horsie,' and unable to find another, he attempted to steal it from Weston on several occasions.  Weston eventually gave the little 'horsie' to Charlot, and Charlot, in turn, made for Weston a gouache and charcoal painting of the horse that he inscribed: 'To Edward, my first Boss--Horsie.'  Charlot also added to the painting, in jest, the faux signature of a Mexican photographer named Silva, referencing an incident in which the real Silva had tried to acquire a certain Weston torso by scrawling his own name across it. 

The image offered here was first exhibited some few weeks later, in 1924, at the Aztec Land gallery in Mexico as Caballito de Cuarenta Centavos.  When Manuel Hernandez Galván saw the photograph, he told Weston, 'You're gringo all right; you paid too much' (Daybooks, Mexico, 22 October 1924).  The image was included in Weston's show at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1927, and reproduced in Anita Brenner's classic 1929 volume, Idols Behind Altars.   The photograph is there captioned 'Detail of Polychrome Clay Statuette, From Tlaquepaque, Jalisco.' 

Aside from a print in the Edward Weston Archive at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Conger locates only one other print of this image in an institutional collection, at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. A gelatin silver press print from a private collection was used in her exhibition Edward Weston in Mexico, 1923 - 1926.  Weston's negative log at the Center for Creative Photography indicates that, of the projected edition of 50 from this negative (28J), only four prints were made. 

Offered here are both the photograph by Weston and the painting by Jean Charlot.