Robert Frank

signed, titled, and dated by the photographer in ink in the margin, numbered in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1956, printed 1958-60

The photographer to Penn Katz Associates, Robert Frank Collection, New York, 1978

Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago, 1987

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1989

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 24 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

Robert Frank, The Americans (New York, 1958), p. 102

Robert Frank (Aperture, 1976), p. 69

Sarah Greenough and Philip Brookman, Robert Frank: Moving Out (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 200

This large, exhibition-sized print is on double-weight paper with glossy finish. This print is unusual in this large size format and shows a great deal of detail not immediately apparent in the more typical smaller prints. The print is essentially in excellent condition. There is a small handling crease to the right of the figure which does not break the emulsion and is only visible upon close examination. While the photographer's discreet retouching is visible in a few places in the image, there are a number of white specks and squiggles - likely due to dust on the negative during printing - which were not retouched in the print. There is a 3-inch handling crease in the upper right margin which does not affect the image. None of these issues has a significant impact upon the overall fine appearance of this 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.
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This print of Robert Frank's Mississippi River, unusual in this large size, is from the photographer's seminal series, The Americans.  Shot while traveling cross-country between 1955 and 1957 on a Guggenheim Fellowship, the images comprise Frank's often cynical view of 1950s America.  Swiss by birth, Frank noted in his grant application, 'It is fair to assume that when an observant American travels abroad his eye will see freshly; and that the reverse may be true when a European eye looks at the United States' (as quoted in American Photography, p. 82).  The resulting book was first published in France as Les Américains in 1958, and the following year in the United States as The Americans.  Frank's 'fresh' look at America was met with harsh criticism and poor sales.  Since that time, however, it has become one of the most important and influential photography books of the postwar period. 

In the years since their publication, the individual images that make up The Americans have been conferred iconic status.  Each image speaks to Frank's vision of a multifaceted 1950s America, full of contradictions.  From parties and political rallies to funerals and roadside memorials, Frank shows us America in all of its social, political, religious, and racial complexities.  Equally a symbol of hope and despair, the present photograph depicts a black man in white robes with Bible and staff in hand, kneeling in prayer, on the debris-littered banks of the Mississippi River.  

Frank's work had an enormous impact on a generation of photographers--Diane Arbus (Lot 36), Lee Friedlander (Lot 37), and Garry Winogrand (Lot 29) among them--whose work, like Frank's, would be subjective rather than objective, and largely shot on the street with hand-held cameras.