Edward Weston

mounted, inscribed with a copyright symbol by the photographer in pencil on the mount, numbered (partially obscured) and inscribed with the Limited Editions Club copyright by him and numbered in unidentified hands in pencil and with a typed label, quoting Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, on the reverse, matted, 1941 

The photographer to his sister, Mary Weston Seaman

By descent to her daughter, Jeannette Seaman

By descent to her nephew, John W. Longstreth

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister, January - March 1978, and traveling to:

New York, International Center of Photography, July - September 1978; and

The Oakland Museum, February - March 1979

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life, February - July 2004, and traveling to:

Oregon, Portland Art Museum, September - November 2004

Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum, January - April 2005; and

Rochester, George Eastman House, April - September 2005

This print:

Kathy Kelsey Foley, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister (The Dayton Art Institute, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 55

Alexander Lee Nyerges, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (The Dayton Art Institute, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 74

Another print of this image:

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, with illustrations by Edward Weston, the Paddington Press reprint of the 1942 Limited Editions Club edition (New York, 1970), facing p. 83

This photograph, on slightly cool, semi-matte paper, is in generally very good condition. There is a faint patina of silvering in the darkest areas of the print, a typical indication of the photograph's age. As for any print whose primary purpose was at one time publication, the surface shows scattered imperfections, including a number of small impressions and the photographer's original retouching. The photograph is on a heavy-weight, cream-colored mount that has darkened with age. On the reverse, along one vertical edge, there are the remains of paper and adhesive, likely from a sheet of paper overlay that was at one time attached. There is also a paper remnant along the bottom edge, on the reverse, where a caption may have been attached. Portions of two old linen hinges on the reverse cover the photographer's negative number and part of the typed label. The negative number reads 'W20 P1.' It is likely that the covered portion of the negative number is an additional number, which would be consistent with the numbering of other prints from the 'Leaves of Grass' series.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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The label reads:

'Song of the Broad-Axe:

'#9)  ((The Shapes arise))

'"Shapes of factories....two-threaded tracks of railroads;..sleepers of the bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches...fleets of barges, tows, river craft........W"'

While traveling to take photographs for Leaves of Grass, Weston and Charis Wilson made their way from Ohio to Pittsburgh in the summer of 1941.  Taken from Pittsburgh's historic overlook, Mount Washington, this photograph shows the Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges and the point where Pittsburgh's three rivers—the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela—converge.  Charis remembered their trip to Pittsburgh in her memoirs: 'The sight from nearby Mount Washington was impressive to our Western eyes, with the massed skyscrapers and the highways cantilevered out over the water. There were nine bridges visible, all of different kinds of construction, the most fanciful being a rainbow-shaped bridge downstream across the Ohio' (Through Another Lens, p. 276).   

This Pittsburgh study was included in the Leaves of Grass volume.  At the time of this writing, no other prints of this image have been located.