Edward Weston

titled and dated by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1938

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. 52

Alexander Lee Nyerges, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (The Dayton Art Institute, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 79 and pl. 56

Other prints of this image:

Conger 1462

Nancy Newhall, ed., Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition (Aperture, 1967), p. 59

Ben Maddow, Edward Weston: Fifty Years (Aperture, 1973), p. 208

Jennifer A. Watts, ed., Edward Weston, A Legacy (Los Angeles: The Huntington Library, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 99

David Featherstone and Peter C. Bunnell, eds., EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston (The Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1986), fig. 14

Susan Danly and Weston J. Naef, Edward Weston in Los Angeles (Los Angeles: The Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 1986, in conjunction with the exhibition), fig. 39

This early print, on double-weight paper with a soft sheen and a slightly warm tonality, is in generally very good to excellent condition. There is minor rubbing at the edges and bumped corners with tiny emulsion loss. When examined in raking light, an approximately 1 1/2-inch hook-shaped indentation, not breaking the emulsion, is visible in the lower left corner.
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.

In California and the West, Charis Wilson wrote of her trip with Weston to Crescent Beach, just south of the Oregon border:

'One memorable day we came out to the coast in thick fog to drive between rows of ghostly chimneys, white skeletons of buildings, black skeletons of trees.  That was Bandon, burned in a forest fire two years before.  The fog stayed with us all the next day, so Edward photographed it, with a little bit of Cape Sebastian showing through.  At Crescent Beach we wandered around in more fog, looking for the logs of 1937.  Edward hadn't expected to work but he found a wrecked car that needed doing and a stump to end all stumps' (p. 183). 

To the post-modernist, this anti-monumental photograph is both arresting and complex.  The commercial viability of the image at the time that it was made, however, perhaps accounts for the scarcity of extant copies.  Only two prints of this image have appeared at auction since 1990, both in these rooms.  But like the present print, both were personal gifts from Weston to family or friends: one to Sybil Anikeeff (Sale 6407, Lot 168), and one to Leon Wilson, Charis Wilson's brother (Sale 6004, Lot 106).   Weston himself must have had high regard for the picture: he included it in his 1946 retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.

In addition to a print of this image in the Edward Weston Archive at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Conger locates prints in the following institutions: the George Eastman House, Rochester; the Huntington Library, San Marino; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum; and Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  There is also a Project Print at Santa Cruz.