Oct 31 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2684 -

Sale 2684 - Lot 210

Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
EDWARD WESTON (1886-1958)
My Little Grey Home in the West [with skull]. 1943; printed circa 1950.
Silver print, the image measuring 9⅝x7⅝ inches (24.4x19.4 cm.), the mount 16⅜x13⅝ inches (41.6x34.6 cm.), with Weston's initials and negative date in pencil on mount recto, and the negative notation "N43-CH&L-1" in pencil on mount verso.

Provenance
Acquired directly from the Photographer; by descent; The Estate of James H Newberry Jr

Charis' pose and the skull were probably selected because they were dramatic. The bleached and broken steer skull also counterbalances the gentle and perfectly stylized white dove near the bottom right.

Edward gave a print to B. Ullrich-Zuckerman for Christmas 1943. She responded appreciatively and enthusiastically. On January 14, he reacted strongly to the diverse responses he was getting and replied: Your gorgeous response to Xmas package came just when I needed to renew my faith in certain heretofore admired friends (or) in the opinions of those friends that I lost faith in … when they write and ask if you are upset by war, or upset because you can't go out on Pt. Lobos, or label you surrealist (O my God!) … all because of new trends… One of these friends is a figure of some import in M. of M.A., N.Y… I am so ashamed of her that I'll not use names. I wish I had your enthusiastic endorsement when I answered…

Reproduced Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP/The University of Arizona), cat. no. 1723/1943