Edward Weston

titled and dated by the photographer and numbered in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1937

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. 49

Alexander Lee Nyerges, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (The Dayton Art Institute, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 36

This print, on a slightly glossy paper, is in generally excellent condition. There are a number of very small chips along the edges and at the corners. In raking light, age-appropriate silvering is visible in the darkest areas of the print.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Charis Wilson, in California and the West, wrote of her trip with Weston and his son Brett to the Mojave Desert: 'Next morning we reached what the map, without exaggerating, called the Wonderland of Rocks.  Here was desert granite to put both Deadmans Point and Rattlesnake Valley to shame: the piled-up boulders were no longer an isolated phenomenon, wide smooth floors of granite, bulging hills and mountains of granite' (p. 49).

Although the Edward Weston Archive in the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, owns four other studies of the same site, the present image is not included in the collection.