Lot 48
  • 48

Movietone News

Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
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Description

  • Movietone News
  • Frenchman Weeping, Marseilles
  • gelatin silver print flush-mounted to Masonite
oversized, a photographically-printed title and date label on the image, flush-mounted to Masonite, a Museum of Modern Art The Exact Instant exhibition label on the reverse, 1941, printed in 1948

Provenance

Collection of the Museum of Modern Art

Sotheby's New York, Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, 23 October 2002, Sale 7851, Lot 195

Exhibited

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, The Exact Instant (100 Years of News Photography), February - May 1949

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Reinstallation: Photography from the Collection, February - April 1993

Literature

LIFE Magazine, 3 March 1941, p. 29 (variant)

David E. Sherman, ed., The Best of LIFE (New York, 1973), p. 17 (variant)

Condition

This oversized exhibition print, an enlargement of a 35mm motion picture newsreel frame, is in generally very good condition. There are scattered scratches, impressions, and creases overall on the image; these occasionally break the emulsion. There are a few tiny areas of emulsion loss, the most noticeable of which is a 1/8-in loss in the lower right quadrant. The edges and corners of the print, as well as those of the photographically-printed label, are bumped and rubbed, with intermittent emulsion loss. Part of the photographically-printed label is lifting from the image. There are 2 tape or label remnants on the reverse of the Masonite mount. '55,' '55.,' and 'PKG - #3' are written in an unidentified hand in ink 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.

Catalogue Note

This photograph is an enlargement from a 35mm motion picture newsreel frame. Although the label on this photograph dates the image ‘1940,’ a close variant was published as the Picture of the Week in the 3 March 1941 issue of LIFE magazine, there captioned ‘A Frenchman sheds tears of patriotic grief as flags of his country’s lost regiments are exiled to Africa.’  

The present photograph was included in The Museum of Modern Art’s 1949 exhibition The Exact Instant, for which curator Edward Steichen began collecting newspaper clippings in 1934. He said of his choices for the exhibition: 'The emphasis in the selection of the show has been more on the penetrating quality of the reporting rather than on the importance of the news event.'