How do experts determine whether a photograph is worth a few hundred dollars—or more than $1 million? In this episode, Sotheby’s specialists and conservators investigate a rare early print of Balzac, The Open Sky by Edward Steichen, one of the defining figures in the history of photography. Through visual analysis, ultraviolet examination, microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence testing, they uncover the material evidence behind its extraordinary rarity and significance.
Created in 1908 and depicting Honoré de Balzac through Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, this atmospheric image reflects a moment when photography was being reimagined as fine art. With Steichen’s original negatives destroyed during World War I and only a handful of examples known, the discovery of an authentic gum dichromate print became a remarkable event in the market—and in photographic history.
Edward Steichen's Balzac, The Open Sky—11 P.M. will be part of Sotheby's Modern Day Auction, presented by CELINE, happening at the historic Breuer building in New York on 20 May.
