Dec 12, 2013 - Sale 2335

Sale 2335 - Lot 34

Price Realized: $ 4,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
LINCOLN, EDWIN HALE (1828-1938)
Suite of 20 photographs from "Wildflowers of New England." Platinum prints, 9 1/4x7 1/4 inches (23.5x18.4 cm.), each with a printed number and caption, in English and in Latin, on recto; each print is beautifully framed. 1910-1914

Additional Details

Edwin Hale Lincoln moved to the Berkshire area in 1893, less than 10 years after taking up photography. He had previously been a drummer boy during the Civil War and a page in the Massachuetts House of Representatives, but now largely made his living photographing large yachts and estates, as well as the burgeoning Berkshire "summer cottages."


Lincoln's spare aesthetic contrasted with the Photo-Seccessionist's concurrent embrace of Pictorialism, and instead his clean images can be seen within the context of the American Arts & Crafts movement (his work was published in Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman, where they received warm praise). In many ways a precursor to later, "straight" landscape photography prominent on the West Coast, Lincoln's quiet botanical studies both elevate his subject matter as well as elegantly reveal the plants' detailed, quiet complexities.


Both boldly modern and a clear product of New England sensibilities, Lincoln's images are an important botanical record and breathtaking magnum opus. Lincoln began working on this series in the early 1890s and finished it in 1914. He printed the photographs and produced sets for subscribers.