It was a Who’s Who among American photographers in the Classic and Contemporary Photographs sale at Swann Galleries on Feb. 25. The auction grossed $1,074,058 and saw competitive bidding.
Edward Steichen led the sale with the dye transfer print “White Lotus,” 1939, printed 1940. The scarce color work brought a record for the image at $81,250. Also by Steichen was a 1922 silver contact print, a portrait of the artist Constantine Brancusi, which sold for $17,500.
Margaret Bourke-White’s 1933 warm-toned silver print, “The George Washington Bridge,” came across the block from the collection of Robert Edward Kiehl, by descent, and earned $81,250. The Weston family provided a strong showing, with Edward Weston’s 1930 silver print titled “Eroded Rock” earning $12,500, and Brett Weston’s “Dunes, Oceano,” silver print, 1934, bringing $10,000. Additional works from American stalwarts included Charles Sheeler’s sepia-toned silver print, “Buggy in a Barn,” Doylestown, Pa. (Christmas card), 1915-17, printed 1928, which brought $12,500, as well as Minor White’s silver prints “Beginnings,” Rochester, N.Y. (Frosted Window), 1952, and “Moon and Wall Encrustations,” Puttneyville, N.Y., 1965, which sold for $11,250 each.
Farm Security Administration photographers proved successful, with “River Rouge Plant” (Ford Motor Company), Number 1 Coke Quencher, silver print, 1947, by Walker Evans, won by an institution for $10,000. Dorothea Lange was also present with “Family Walking on Highway, Five Children,” silver print, 1938, printed ca. 1960, selling for $9,375.
Humanist photography featured a run of Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Behind the Gare St. Lazare,” silver print, 1932, printed 1980s, and “Hyères, France,” silver print, 1932, printed 1980s, realizing $11,875 each.
Nineteenth-century works included mammoth-plate albumen prints by Francis Firth, “The Pyramids of Sakkarah, from the North East,” 1858 ($12,500), and “The Second Pyramid from the Southeast,” 1858 ($10,625).
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