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A $4.6M Sale of Ansel Adams Photographs Sets 41 Auction Records
The exceptional sale of prints from the Meredith Collection reaffirm Adams’s legacy as one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers.
F orty years after his death aged 82, Ansel Adams is known as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century – a reputation that was emphatically reaffirmed at a record-breaking sale at Sotheby’s New York on 17 October. Ansel Adams: A Legacy Photographs from the Meredith Collection featured 96 works by the iconic American photographer, 77% of which soared past presale estimates to land on a record-smashing $4.6 million result. In a white-glove sale (meaning 100% of lots sold), many lots vanquished their presale high estimates, setting 41 new artist records in today’s discerning market.
Adams’s landscapes present epic vistas of raw natural beauty, monumental visions of America. His visionary compositions defined a spirit of America – grand, inspiring and humbling. They sought the sublime, captured nature and inspired viewers around the world. In the storied Meredith Collection, created by Adams himself and later gifted to The Friends of Photography, Adams’s visionary photographs found new homes.
In an auction packed with highlights and show-stopping moments, a succession of stand-out works rode waves of excitement and anticipation. Collectors bid fiercely for lots including Aspens, Northern New Mexico (Vertical), which hammered down at a remarkable $720,000 (over double its high estimate and setting a record for the highest price paid for this image), while the legendary series of five images comprising Surf Sequence achieved $576,000, far exceeding its $300,000 high estimate and setting a record for the series. Complete suites of Adams’s Surf Sequence are rare at auction, with only three sets having come to market in the last twenty years.
Rose and Driftwood, San Francisco, California inspired further excitement in the room as bids rocketed to $132,000, again twice exceeding its high estimate and setting a record for the highest price ever achieved for this image, breaking Sotheby’s own 2007 record for a print of this image in the process. Even greater heights were scaled by The Snake River & the Tetons, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, which achieved nearly triple its high estimate at $96,000.
All told, nearly half of the lots on offer set new auction records, with three images achieving their highest ever price at auction.
“This collection represents the very essence of Adams’s vision – his reverence for the natural world, his technical mastery and his unwavering commitment to photography as an art form,” collectors and custodians of the Meredith Collection, Lynn and Tom Meredith, said in a statement. “To witness these works receive the recognition they so richly deserve … has been a humbling and deeply fulfilling experience.”
The sale reflected the exceptional curatorial care and vision that the Merediths brought to nurturing the collection, which they acquired in 2002. And as the established market leader for Ansel Adams, having sold more works by the artist than any other auction house, Sotheby’s reaffirmed its status as the premiere destination for works by this most singular and inspiring of American 20th-century artists.
