SMITH W EUGENE (1918 1978) The Walk to Paradise Garden

Sale 2288 - Lot 83

Price Realized: $ 40,800

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000

SMITH, W. EUGENE (1918-1978)
"The Walk to Paradise Garden." Oversized silver print mounted to a period board, image measures 16 3/4x14 1/4 inches (42.5x36.2 cm.), the original board measures 20x16 inches (50.8x40.6 cm.), with Smith's signature, with a stylus, at the lower left on print recto, and with two of Smith's hand stamps and notations, in pencil, in an unknown hand, on mount verso; a Museum of Modern Art, New York, Art Lending Service document is affixed to the back of the frame. 1946; printed 1960s

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Additional Details

A stunning print of one of Smith's best-known images, which has a remarkable provenance: this oversized print was among a group of artworks available to collectors that could be leased on a monthly basis by the Museum of Modern Art's Art Lending Service (via the Witkin Gallery). The Private New York Collectors, who have owned this beautiful print since 1971, initially rented it (for $7.00 a month!) to see if they enjoyed living with the picture. After two months, they decided to purchase the photograph. It has remained in their home ever since. The original document will be conveyed with the photograph.

A photographer who worked to effect social change, Smith was severely injured in Saipan during the second World War. His colleage, the photojournalist Ernie Pyle said of him, "Gene Smith is an idealist, trying to do great good with his work but it will either break him or kill him."

Although Smith's war wounds weren't fatal, they cost him two painful years of hospitalization and plastic surgery. During these years he took no pictures and wondered whether he would ever be able to return to photography. It was intensely painful for him to walk and operate a camera, but on a walk with his children he returned with one of the most famous photographs of all time: "A Walk to Paradise Garden." This memorable image was to serve as the final picture in Edward Steichen's MoMA exhibition "The Family of Man" in 1955. The notion that his photograph would be accepted as an artwork by this prestigious institution in 1970-1971--a period when fine art photography was first being shown in commercial galleries and offered at public auctions--is testimony to Smith's reputation as a towering figure in the worlds of photography, photojournalism, and fine art.

In 1948, the Junior Council of The Museum of Modern Art, led by Blanchette Rockefeller, began discussing the idea of creating an art lending library that would function as a forum to educate young collectors about modern art. The library would allow the public to rent works of art selected by a trustee advisory committee in consultation with curators from the museum. This early conception of an art lending library became the Art Lending Service (ALS) in 1951.

The ALS provided the public with the opportunity to rent a piece of art for a two-month period before deciding whether to purchase the work or return it. The ALS took a small commission on each work sold, which was used to staff and underwrite the expenses of the ALS. The ALS closed permanently to the public in 1982.