Albert Renger-Patzsch

credit in ink, annotations 'Renger Foto, Essen' and 'M' in pencil, and a Mills College Art Gallery letterpress exhibition label with typed credit and number '283' on the reverse, circa 1929

Estate of Professor Carl George Heise

Rudolf Kicken Galerie, Köln

Private collection, Europe

Christie's New York, 13 October 2000, Sale 9484, Lot 304

This appealing early print, warm-toned and on double-weight paper with a matte surface, is in generally excellent condition. It has been trimmed to the image. The edges are rubbed, and the corners are bumped, with tiny chipping. On the reverse of the print, there is light soiling and age-darkening. There is a small abrasion at the lower edge on the reverse, as well as several small adhesive remnants at the top edge, from prior hinging.
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 comes originally from the collection of Carl Georg Heise (1890-1979), art historian, Director of the Museum for Art and cultural History in Lübeck, and Albert Renger-Patzsch's most fervent early champion.  Shortly after meeting Renger-Patzsch in 1927, Heise wrote an article on photography for Kunst and Kunstler that featured six of the photographer's images.  Heise purchased works from Renger-Patzsch for the Museum and for his personal collection, and arranged for the publication of two volumes of his photographs, Lübeck and Die Welt is schön.  He was additionally responsible for the inclusion of Renger Patzsch's work in exhibitions at Hannover's Kestner Gesellschaft and at the Société Française de Photographie in Paris.

The photograph offered here is likely one solicited for a Mills College exhibition by Alfred Neumeyer, a professor of art history from Berlin who came to Mills to teach in 1935. As director of the Mills College Art Gallery, he organized a number of important shows of modern art, with an emphasis on European artists, among them Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Lyonel Feininger. He was also a friend of Carl Georg Heise, from whom the present print originally comes.

“The absolutely correct rendering of form, the subtlety of tonal gradation from the brightest highlight to the darkest shadow, impart to a technically expert photograph the magic of experience.  Let us therefore leave art to the artists, and let us try to use the medium of photography to create photographs that can endure because of their photographic qualities . . .”

Albert Renger-Patzsch, 1927