Lot 48
  • 48

Edward Weston

Estimate
350,000 - 500,000 USD
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Description

  • Edward Weston
  • HANDS AGAINST KIMONO (TINA MODOTTI)
  • Platinum or palladium print
  • 9 x 7 1/2 inches
platinum or palladium print, signed, dated, and inscribed 'Mexico, D. 7.' by the photographer and with 'Hands, Manos con Kimono, Col., Carlos Vidali, Mexico, D. F.' in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, matted, Weston Gallery and Southland Corporation labels on the reverse, 1923

Provenance

Estate of Tina Modotti

Collection of Vittorio Vidali (1900-1983)

By descent to his son Carlos Vidali

Sotheby's New York, 8 May 1984, Sale 5156, Lot 352

The Weston Gallery, Carmel

Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc.

Sotheby's New York, Photographs from The Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc., 5 April 2000, Sale 7448, Lot 12

Literature

Conger 117

Nancy Newhall, ed., The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Volume I, Mexico (Aperture, 1973), pl. 6

Ben Maddow, Edward Weston: Fifty Years (Aperture, 1973), p. 106

Modotti y Weston: Mexicanidad (Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, 1999), pp. 40-1

Manfred Heiting, ed., Edward Weston (Köln, 2004), p. 80

Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston (Monterey Museum of Art, 2003), p. 16

John Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye (The Museum of Modern Art, 1966), p. 49

Condition

This rich platinum or palladium print has the lush, warm chocolate and creamy off-white tones and matte surface that are typical of Weston's best photographs from this period. This print was rendered with exceptional care, and the texture of Modotti's cloth kimono and the hem of her sleeves remain sharp. The photograph is robustly signed, dated, and inscribed by Weston on the reverse. This early print is in generally excellent condition. Upon very close examination in raking light, a few small, thin, linear scuffs are barely visible. The print is trimmed to the image, and there is minor edge wear and a small, sharp crease to the tip of the lower right corner. On the reverse of the print, paper remnants along the upper edge suggest that this print was originally affixed to a mount, as is characteristic of Weston's presentation style from this period.
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.

Catalogue Note

This study of Tina Modotti’s hands against a Japanese kimono was taken by Weston in Mexico, one of several photographs in which the bold pattern of the kimono becomes a lively part of the composition.   Conger notes that the kimono had been part of Modotti’s wardrobe since her Hollywood years; W. F. Seely made a studio portrait of her, wrapped in the kimono and posed in front of an Oriental screen, in 1921.   In the Weston photograph offered here, the designs that swirl across the fabric form a striking counterpoint to Modotti’s folded hands.  Weston would go on to photograph Modotti in and out of the kimono during their time in Mexico, the bright, patterned fabric always recognizable.

The present image was chosen by Weston for three of his most important exhibitions: the Aztec Land Gallery show in Mexico City, 1924; his Los Angeles County Museum of Art show, 1927; and his retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, 1946.   The print offered here comes originally from the collection of Vittorio Vidali, Modotti’s lover in Mexico in the last years of her life.   Believed to be one of only two platinum prints extant, the present print is signed, dated, and inscribed ‘Mexico, D. F.,’ by Weston on the reverse.  Conger locates two prints of the image in institutions: a silver print in the collection of the George Eastman House and a Project Print at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  The second platinum print is in a private collection.

In his ‘Dating Edward Weston’s Tina on the Azotea,’ Thomas Knight proposes that the Modotti kimono studies, if taken together, show Weston’s evolution from Pictorialism to modernism. The series begins with the present image, a rich, matte-surface print with hints of Japonisme; then moves to photographs of Modotti only partially robed in the kimono; then to a study of her from the back, nude on the azotea in the brilliant Mexican sun, the kimono tossed to one side; and finally, to Modotti fully and frontally nude, stretched out on a blanket, the kimono gone (History of Photography, Vol. 20, No. 4, Winter 1996).