Alma Lavenson

warm-toned, signed and dated (twice) by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, hinged to a modern mount, signed by the photographer in pencil on the mount, matted, 1931

Acquired from the photographer by the present owner, 1986

University of Missouri-St. Louis, Group f.64, April 1978; and traveling to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-Columbia, and The Oakland Museum

Riverside, California Museum of Photography, Alma Lavenson, 1979 - 1980; and traveling to the Oakland Museum and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography, September - November 1982; and traveling to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Des Moines Art Center, and The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Oakland Museum, Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography, October 1992 - January 1993; and traveling to the Akron Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, the Minnesota Museum of Art, and the Worcester Art Museum

This print:

Patricia Gleason Fuller, Alma Lavenson (Riverside: California Museum of Photography, in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition), p. 16

Susan Ehrens, Alma Lavenson: Photographs (Berkeley, 1990), p. 43

Jean Tucker, Group f.64 (University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 33

Therese Thau Heyman, ed., Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography (The Oakland Museum, 1992, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 67

Another print of this image:

Keith F. Davis, An American Century of Photographs from Dry-Plate to Digital (The Hallmark Photographic Collection, 1995), p. 151

This warm-toned early print, on double-weight paper with a semi-glossy surface, is in generally very good to excellent condition. When examined in raking light, slight age-appropriate silvering is visible at the periphery, as well as deposits of original retouching in the right and center right areas of the print. In addition, in raking light, a tiny (¼-inch) sharp handling crease, not breaking the emulsion, is visible in the upper left quadrant, as well as a very faint small vertical indentation in the lower right quadrant. There are rust-colored adhesive remains on the reverse, likely from a prior mounting, and two small paper tape remains (likely old hinges) at the bottom corners. These do not affect the print.
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.

The image offered here was made a year after Alma Lavenson's first encounters with Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, who by the later 1920s were proponents of the 'straight' style of photography—sharply-focused, clearly-defined, and with precise attention to surface detail.  The self-taught Lavenson had begun photographing in 1919 in the then-fashionable Pictorialist style, but by 1931 had adopted the new, more objective approach to the medium. 

Although not an official member of Group f.64, whose members included Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, John Paul Edwards, Henry Swift, Sonya Noskowiak, Cunningham, and Weston, Lavenson was invited to be a part of their pioneering exhibition at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco in 1932.  This image was included in both this exhibition and in Lavenson's 1934 solo exhibition at Willard Van Dyke's gallery at 683 Brockhurst Street, Oakland.

According to Lavenson authority Susan Ehrens, it is likely that this is the print lent by the photographer to one or both of these early exhibitions.  As of this writing, it is believed that there are two early prints of the image extant—the present print and a print in The Hallmark Photographic Collection at The Nelson-Atkins Museum.