?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ZAIDA BEN-YUSUF (1869-1933) Portrait of Lucia Chamberlain (1882-1978). Platinum print, the image measuring 8x4 5/8 inches (20.3x11.7 cm.), double mounted, the larger 11 1/4x9 inches (28.6x22.9 cm.), with Ben-Yusuf's signature in pencil on mount recto, her address stamp on print verso, and a Century Magazine stamp on mount verso. Circa 1908
The Ladies Home Journal named Ben-Yusef as one of "The Foremost Women Photographers in America" in 1901. Ben-Yusuf opened a studio on Fifth Avenue in 1897, and in 1898 she exhibited in a two-woman show with Frances Benjamin Johnston at the Camera Club of New York. She became noteworthy for her artistically elegant portraits of wealthy and well-known Americans around the turn of the century, operating a highly fashionable studio and contributing images to publications. While her work had become obscure in recent decades, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery mounted an exhibition of her work in 2008 (Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer, April 11-September 1, 2008), positioning Ben-Yusuf as a key figure during this early development of fine art photography.
