Photographs
Photographs
Auction Closed
April 5, 08:29 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
EDWARD WESTON
1886-1958
SHELLS (3S)
signed and dated in pencil on the reverse, framed, 1927; accompanied by a fragment of the original mount, signed and dated in pencil, and a manuscript letter and a Los Angeles Museum exhibition brochure, signed and inscribed by Weston in pencil and ink (Edward Weston: Forms of Passion, fronstispiece) (4)
9½ by 7⅛ in. (24.1 by 18.1 cm.)
This photograph was acquired the year that it was made by Euliel Ballenger White, a teacher at Columbus Elementary School in Glendale, California. It was through Flora Weston, the photographer's first wife and a fellow teacher, that White acquired this print. A note from Weston to Flora that accompanies this print reads, ‘Here is print for Euliel – It is not one of the imperfect “extras” – Sorry I could not give her a choice. I have few of the shells printed.’
Prints of this early shell study, on velvety matte-surface paper, are rare and the negative (3S) is not recorded in Conger. The photographer’s negative log, now in the collection of the Center, suggests that Weston made only 3 prints of this image, one of which he destroyed.