Robert Frank

signed, titled, and dated by the photographer in ink on the reverse, matted, 1951

Acquired by the present owner from Houk Friedman Gallery, New York, 1993

Other prints of this image:

Tom Maloney, ed,. U. S. Camera Annual 1951 (New York, 1950), p. 142

'Speaking of Pictures: A Photographer in Paris Finds Chairs Everywhere,' Life, 21 May 1951, pp. 26-28

Robert Frank, Black White and Things (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994), p. 20

Robert Frank: Paris (Göttingen, 2008, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at the Museum Folkwang, Essen), unpaginated (variant cropping)

This early, slightly warm-toned print, on double-weight paper with a slight surface sheen, is in generally very good condition. The corners are bumped, and there is some wear and age-darkening at the margin edges, as well as discoloration at the left edge. Visible in raking light are soft handling creases in the margins, small indentations, and a one-inch semi-circular raised impression from the reverse, none of which breaks the emulsion. The reverse of the print is lightly soiled. The numbers '8-180,' '636,' and '239' have been written in unidentified hands in pencil on the reverse, as well as a small label with 'P-55,' also in pencil.
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.

Paris and the Chairs, etc., is an image with significant early publication history in Robert Frank's career.  It was used in sequences of other chair photographs in magazines and annuals in the early 1950s, and was slated for inclusion in the photographer's first important book, Black White and Things.  The photograph's romantic sensibility is characteristic of Frank's early work in Paris, and the images he made there during this time are imbued with affection for the city's streets, cafes, and atmosphere.  Other images that share this same romantic view of the city are the study of tulips in a suitcase and the image of a couple clasping hands that appear in the present catalogue as Lots 39 and 204.

Paris and the Chairs, etc., was published in the 21 May 1951, issue of Life magazine.  It was one of 11 photographs by Frank reproduced over three pages under the story title 'Speaking of Pictures: A Photographer in Paris Finds Chairs Everywhere.'  This was the first appearance of Frank's pictures in Life magazine.  While his commercial work had been published regularly in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, Junior Bazaar, and a number of other periodicals since 1947, the 1951 Life story represented the debut of his photographs in a general-audience publication with wide distribution.  

The text accompanying the Chairs story reads,

'When Robert Frank, a 26 year-old Swiss photographer, was in Paris a year and a half ago, he set out to photograph the sights of the city.  On the way from his studio he walked through the Luxembourg gardens where he was attracted by the endless array of chairs that filled the park.  Some were in tidy rows along the paths and fountains, others clustered under shady trees while here and there a single chair sat quietly by itself.  ''They all seemed to be waiting for something,'' says Frank.  Soon he began to notice chairs all over Paris and wherever he went he photographed them—along the Champs-Elysées, under the café awnings, beside the sailboat ponds.  When he left for New York he took with him more than 100 photographs of chairs, which to him symbolize the leisurely, relaxed way of life in Paris.  "In New York," he says regretfully, "one cannot afford the time to relax in a chair.  Besides," he adds, "you could not have such an institution.  The people would steal the chairs."'     

Paris and the Chairs, etc., appears on the third page of the Life feature, and is part of a sequence of 5 photographs of the same couple.  The caption for the sequence reads: 'COUPLE ON A BENCH were photographed from top of wall.  When they left, Frank followed them along the wall, then got down to catch them nearing exit.'

Paris and the Chairs, etc., appeared in various versions of this sequence in two other significant places in the early 1950s.  The image was first published in Tom Maloney's U. S. Camera Annual 1951 (actually published in 1950), where it appears as the bottom-most of 3 photographs from the series.  Frank also included it in Black White and Things, a book project that reached only the maquette stage in 1952, but was published by the National Gallery of Art in 1994.  In the book, this image appears at the top of a vertically arranged sequence of 4 images. 

In its romantic approach to its subject matter, this image relates to another by Frank sold in these rooms, on 8 April 2008, of a different Parisian couple posing for a photograph after having placed their self-timed camera on a park chair (Sale 8424, Lot 252).  Frank's early photographs of Paris are unique within his body of work for their atmospheric and romantic qualities.  These characteristics are notably absent from the far grittier work Frank would produce in America later in the decade.