Edward Weston

mounted, inscribed with a copyright symbol by the photographer in pencil on the mount, numbered '68W P21' and inscribed with the Limited Editions Club copyright by him, 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

Kathy Kelsey Foley, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister (The Dayton Art Institute, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 54 (this print)

Other prints 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. 3

David Featherstone and Peter C. Bunnell, eds., EW: 100, Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston (The Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1986), fig. 31

This photograph, on slightly cool-toned, 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. In raking light, the following are visible: a number of faint finger prints on the print surface; and a small area, at the lower left, where the print has been rubbed. 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 a small part of the typed label.
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.

The label reads:

'Starting from Paumanok:

'#14)  "yet upon the plains west of the spinal river,

'yet in my house of adobe"....................W 68'

After spending several days at the Grand Canyon, Weston and Charis Wilson made their way to New Mexico by the end of June.  Weston had first visited New Mexico some years earlier, in 1933, with friends Willard Van Dyke and Sonya Noskowiak.  At that time, he had been fascinated by the desert landscape and the indigenous adobe architecture of the Southwest.  The photograph offered here, of a typical adobe house framed against a backdrop of boundless blue sky and desert brush, extends those interests, and reflects the longer, sweeping views that would characterize his photographs for Leaves of Grass.  

This image was reproduced in the Leaves of Grass volume.  Conger locates no prints of the image in any institutional collections.