Edward Steichen

palladium and ferro-prussiate print, titled and dated in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1920

The family of the photographer

Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1970

Other prints of this image:

Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (New York, 1963), pl. 69

Carl Sandburg, Alexander Liberman, et al., Steichen the Photographer (The Museum of Modern Art, 1961, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 36

Joanna Steichen, Steichen's Legacy: Photographs, 1895-1973 (New York, 2000), pl. 234

Todd Brandow and William A. Ewing, Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography (Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis, 2007, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 86

Life Library of Photography: The Great Themes (New York, 1970), p. 80

This well-executed multi-process print, with rich umber tones and faint blue highlights, is in generally excellent condition. The photograph is on slightly matte paper with a lightly textured surface. The print edges are lightly worn and have multiple minute chips, and the corners are rounded from wear. The top right corner has a few small creases that break the emulsion, and the bottom left corner has a small paper loss. Upon close inspection, original deposits of retouching are visible at the center of the print and in the lower left quadrant. Visible in raking light, along the top edge of the print, primarily in the negative margin, the print has taken on a high sheen. The reverse of the print is slightly age-darkened and has minor surface soiling along the top edge.
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.
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The print of Harmonica Riddle offered here is a rare multiple-process photograph from the series of metaphysical still-life studies Steichen embarked upon in the early 1920s.  The years directly after the First World War were a time of creative transition for the photographer.  The harsh reality of the war and Steichen's experiences as an aerial photographer for the Army Signal Corps prompted a change in his view of photography.  During this time, he trained his camera on the natural forms he found in his garden at Voulangis, France, and executed the series of still-life studies that represent his first steps away from Pictorialism and toward Modernism.  These studies, characterized by unlikely combinations of abstracted objects and by titles that were either metaphysical in tone or downright cryptic, include Harmonica Riddle, offered here, several variants of Triumph of the Egg, as well as Time-Space Continuum, the Diagram of Doom studies, and From the Outer Rim (cf. A Life in Photography, pls. 66, 69, 70, 71, 73, and 74). 

Steichen printed most of these studies as platinum or silver prints.  By the early 1920s, he had moved away from the more esoteric and complex printing techniques he had explored so thoroughly in his early years as a photographer, making the multiple-process version of Harmonica Riddle offered here all the more unusual.  Steichen was a master craftsman and an expert at combining different processes to create effects unobtainable through conventional methods.  In this print, he has layered the palladium process with the cyanotype (ferro-prussiate) process, yielding a photograph that has black dark tones, reddish mid-tones, and delicate cyan highlights.  These effects add a degree of color, depth, and mystery to the already evocative image.