Alfred Stieglitz

platinum print, signed and dated in pencil on the image, 1886

Nancy Medwell, Seattle, 1989

Greenough 53

The American Amateur Photographer, December 1891, Vol. 3, No. 12, opp. p. 485 

The Photographic Times, 21 July 1893, Vol. 23, p. 389

Ralph Flint, 'What is 291?,' The Christian Science Monitor, 17 November 1937, p. 5

This highly-detailed, early platinum print is in generally very good condition. As is visible in the catalogue illustration, Stieglitz's robust signature is in pencil in the lower right corner of the image. Upon close examination, a small, discrete area of old conservation is visible in the lower central portion of the image, to the right of the wagon. A 1/2-inch tear extending from the left edge has been expertly repaired and is only visible upon very close inspection. The corners are rounded and the edges are rubbed. There is a small, faint crease along the upper edge near the right corner. The left and right edges are faintly but age-appropriately darkened on the front and reverse. There are two small linen hinge remnants in the lower corners on the reverse.
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.

Although this photograph dates to the early years of Alfred Stieglitz’s career, it possesses a modern sensibility distinct from much of the work he executed during this period.  With its detailed and realistic account of a road outside the German city of Munich, it looks forward to the imagery the mature photographer would create decades later of the landscape and poplar trees at the Stieglitz home in Lake George.  November Days (known also by the title Outskirts of Munich) was a frequently illustrated and exhibited image in Stieglitz’s early oeuvre.  Stieglitz entered November Days in the 1892 exhibition at the Galleries of the Boston Art Club, and included it in his first solo exhibition at The Camera Club in New York in 1899, the catalogue for which states that the photograph had won silver medals in exhibitions in England, Vienna, and Milan (cf. Greenough, p. 30). 

November Days was an image that retained its importance for Stieglitz throughout his career.  In the 1920s and 1930s, Stieglitz began a process of reviewing his early work and reincorporating selected images into his exhibition repertoire.  He showed November Days in his 1935 solo exhibition at An American Place with a number of other photographs from early in his career that met his new standards for photographic modernism. 

This fully signed and dated platinum print is one of a very few early examples of this image extant.  In Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set, Sarah Greenough locates two platinum prints and a later gelatin silver print in the National Gallery of Art, a platinum print in a private collection, and a lantern slide at the George Eastman House.