?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 50,000 - $ 75,000
EDWARD STEICHEN (1879-1973) White Lotus. Dye transfer print, the image measuring 6 5/8x9 1/4 inches (16.8x23.5 cm.), the sheet slightly larger, with Steichen's Photograph by Edward Steichen hand stamp and copious notations, including "White Lotus, Umpawaug 1939, printed 1940, Print #2, Wash-off relief prints by Noel Deeks, 1940," and numeric and inventory notations, apparently in Noel Deeks' (Steichen's darkroom printer) hand, in pencil, on verso. 1939; printed 1940
Acquired from Christie's East, New York, November 6, 1984; to a Private Collector; by descent.
Steichen's lifelong and inveterate passion for gardening spanned more than five decades. His love of nature is evident in the range of horicultural subjects he photographed, among them daisies, delphinium, foxgoves, geraniums, primroses, lotus, roses, and sunflowers, which were rendered in different photographic processes. In addition to his photographis, he proudly exhibited a live delphinium at the Museum of Modern Art, in 1936. In a keynote speech he delivered at the Photojournalism Conference 1961, Steichen wrote about nature as a source of creativity. "By using the term nature, we mean reality, and once we become consciously aware of reality and see with all our knowledge, experience and senses, not just our eyes, and feel with all our being, the grounds begins to open toward creativity. We can theorize and intellectualize to our heart's content in analyzing and soul-searching time, but if a photograph is to become alive, our instinct and intuition must be allowed to fire up our vision, our imagination and sensitive our awareness to the rushing, living compulsion that produces a fine photograph--perhaps a great one."
An artist and photographer, Steichen's first forays into color occurred early on in his career. His pioneering use of a hybrid technique, in which he combined painterly gum bichromate pigments and hand-coated platinum, may be seen in his iconic image The Flatiron Building, N.Y. (1905). Soon after, he discovered the Autochrome, a sumptuous color process in which images were produced on glass. The Autochrome, which was invented by the Lumiere Brothers in 1907, is considered the first practicable method of color photography. In Steichen's hands, the process was employed masterfully to depict friends and family members in a luscious palette of color. Given his background as a painter it is perhaps not surprising that he explored more complex photographic techniques that rendered a full color palette.
White Lotus was shot at Steichen's nursery in Umpawaug, CT and was printed by Noel Deeks, who was associated with the master photographer from 1917-1942. Deeks had been employed in Steichen's New York advertising studio, where he produced commercial and editorial prints for magazines, particularly color work. After Steichen's reitrement, Deeks set up his photo lab at Umpagwaug, where he continued to focus on printing color negatives. Among Steichen's papers at the Center of Creative Photography are pamphlets that describe his exploration of early color processes invented by Hiram C.J. Deeks, who printed Steichen's color negatives with Noel. The C.C.P. is the also repository for Noel Deeks' papers.
