George H. Seeley

oversized platinum and gum-bichromate print, signed and dated by the photographer in pencil on the image, flush-mounted to thin board, matted, 1918

Collection of George Rinhart

Christie's New York, 26 April 1988, Lot 351

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, The Berkshire Museum, Intimations & Imaginings; The Photographs of George H. Seeley, May - June 1986; and traveling to Smith College Museum of Art; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana; and the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire

George Dimock and Joanne Hardy, Intimations & Imaginings: The Photographs of George H. Seeley (Berkshire Museum, 1986, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 43 (this print)

This warm-toned print is on paper with a vaguely linen-like surface and a subtle sheen. The tones are rich brown. When the print is examined closely in raking light, a number of light scuffs are visible on the surface, as well as some of the photographer's retouching. There is a narrow line of brownish discoloration running along the left edge, as well as general light wear along all four edges. None of these condition issues detract significantly from the generally fine appearance of this print. Our identification of the print's process is taken from the Berkshire Museum's exhibition catalogue, where it is described as a platinum and gum bichromate print.
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The photograph offered here, printed in a large format and affixed to a mount, was almost certainly used by Seeley for exhibition.  Although he worked in isolation from the photography center of New York City, Seeley was nonetheless courted by Stieglitz to be a member of the Photo-Secession.  At Stieglitz's urging, Seeley participated in nearly every major Photo-Secessionist exhibition in the early part of the century, and Stieglitz included photogravures of his work in three issues of Camera Work.  In the October 1907 issue of Camera Work, Seeley was described (likely by Stieglitz) in glowing terms:  'Originally Seeley chose a path peculiarly his own.  He has followed it close.  He is undoubtedly one of the most original and earnest of the Photo-Secessionists.' 

Seeley was a prolific worker and was admired for his ability to make what were, for the time, especially large prints.  It is therefore remarkable that, in 1908, he exhibited over 50 of his photographs in a one-man show at the Photo-Secession Galleries.  In the groundbreaking 1910 International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in Buffalo, Seeley was one of a select group of entrants to be represented by over 20 photographs, all of them large multiple-process prints like the one offered here.  While Seeley was a true Pictorialist, the best of his work embodies a kind of atmospheric abstraction—evident in this image and in the large-format Seeley presented in this catalogue as Lot 107—that presages certain elements of modernism in photography.