?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
BERENICE ABBOTT (1898-1991) Portrait of Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter). Silver print, the image measuring 9 3/8x7 3/4 inches (23.8x19.7 cm.), with Abbott's Commerce Street stamp, a 1954 date stamp, and the sitter's name in ink and in pencil, on verso. Circa 1945
Provenance: The Estate of Richard T. Rosenthal, Philadelphia
Abbott's portrait of folk and blues singer Lead Belly appeared on the cover of an album released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings featuring Ledbetter, Woodie Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry. Though he didn't achieve commercial success with his recordings in his lifetime, both Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain, among many others, counted Ledbetter as a major influence.
