Photographs at Sotheby's
Sotheby’s 6 October 2010 auction of Photographs presents a fine selection of photographic images dating from the medium’s earliest years to those by some of best photographers of the 20th century and the present day. Overall the sale is expected to fetch between $4.3 and 6.5 million. The catalogue cover image, Edward Steichen’s Wind Fire, Thérèse Duncan, Acropolis (est. $120,000-180,000) is one of very few extant prints of this iconic image. This lush and warm-toned palladium print is the earliest-known published print of the image, appearing in Vanity Fair in June 1923, and it conveys an elegant exuberance. Steichen took this photograph while vacationing in Greece with modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan and her troupe.
Foremost among Sotheby’s extensive offerings of fine 19th-century photographs is a whole-plate daguerreotype by Rufus Anson of the two principle characters in the 19th-century melodrama Robert Macaire (est. $250,000-350,000): the titular arch-villain and his hapless foil, Strop. In its portrayal of two costumed actors, fully in-character, it is an image that crackles with dramatic energy.
A strong selection of daguerreotypes includes the quarter-plate daguerreotype of Revolutionary War Veteran Baltus Stone (est. $10,000-20,000) who was over 100 years of age when this portrait was made in Philadelphia. Stone saw action in the Battles of Long Island, Brandywine, and Germantown. Born in 1744, he is one of the earliest-born people to have been photographed.
