Imogen Cunningham

warm-toned, numbered '18' in pencil on the reverse, framed, 1925, probably printed in the 1930s

Collection of Rondal Partridge, the photographer's son

Private Collection, acquired from the above, 1986

Sotheby's New York, 23 April 2003, Sale 7885, Lot 150

Richard Lorenz, Imogen Cunningham: Flora (New York, 1996), pl. 12

Richard Lorenz and Manfred Heiting, Imogen Cunningham: 1883-1976 (Cologne, 2001), p. 201

Margery Mann, Imogen! Imogen Cunningham Photographs 1910-1973 (Seattle: The University of Washington, 1974), p. 72

Drew Heath Johnson, ed., Capturing Light: Masterpieces of California Photography, 1850 to the Present (Oakland Museum, 2001), pl. 60

The Enduring Illusion: Photographs from the Stanford University Museum of Art (Stanford University Museum of Art, 1996), p. 63

The delicately warm-toned early print is on double-weight paper with a lovely subtle surface sheen. Like the best of Cunningham's prints, this one presents its subject in full and fascinating detail. It is in generally excellent condition. In raking light, age-appropriate silvering is visible in the dark areas of the image, as are a few tiny deposits of original retouching overall. The right margin edge and corner are ever-so-slightly darkened.
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 photograph offered here is an early print of Cunningham’s study of the stamens and pistils of the Magnolia grandiflora, a counterpart to her famous image of a fully-opened magnolia blossom, taken the same year.   Like the Jack-in-the-Pulpit photograph offered in Lot 22, Tower of Jewels signaled a new direction in Cunningham’s work that began with her plant photographs in the 1920s.  Highly focused and precise, these accomplished botanical studies were Cunningham’s entry into Modernism and garnered international praise.   In Tower of Jewels and other floral images, the photographer elevates whole or parts of flowers to icon status, producing images that are almost hypnotic in their power.  Dramatically lit and monumentally composed, the plants in these photographs have a vitality that transcends the still frame.

Tower of Jewels shows the magnolia’s pistils and stamens in all of their glistening intensity, the stigmas curled at the end of each pistil to form a delicate crown.  Unusual for one of her floral studies, Cunningham gave the image a metaphoric title—‘Tower of Jewels’—after the elaborate tiered tower of the same name at the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition.   The photographer’s own work was shown in that Exposition, and it is known that she was especially enthusiastic about the art of the Italian Futurists, which she saw there for the first time.

Cunningham scholar Susan Ehrens has noted that the Tower of Jewels was selected again and again for exhibition in the photographer’s early career: for a one-person show at the Berkeley Art Museum in 1929; a one-person show at San Francisco’s De Young Museum in 1932; the Los Angeles Museum the same year; ‘The Forum’ in 1933; and the Golden Gate Exposition in 1940, among other venues.   Despite this illustrious exhibition history, early prints of the image are scarce.  The Berkeley Art Museum owns an early print, as does the Art Institute of Chicago.  An early print offered in these rooms in 2007 set a world record for Cunningham at auction, which still stands today.