André Kertész

signed, titled, and dated '1926' and 'March 28-1983' by the photographer in pencil and with reduction notations in an unidentified hand in pencil and crayon and with the photographer's '5, rue de Vanves' studio stamp, his reproduction rights stamp, and a Vu Magazine stamp, dated '1983' by the photographer in ink, on the reverse, matted, framed, 1926

The photographer to Susan Harder, New York, as agent

Acquired from the above by a private collection, New York, 1983

Acquired from the above by 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. 9 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

Sandra Phillips, David Travis, and Weston J. Naef, André Kertész: Of Paris and New York (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1985, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 136

Sarah Greenough, Robert Gurbo, and Sarah Kennel, André Kertész (National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 51

André Kertész and Avant Garde Photography of the Twenties and Thirties (London: Annely Juda Fine Arts, 1999, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 46

Jane Corkin, A Lifetime of Perception (New York, 1982), p. 127

Susan Harder and Hiroji Kubota, eds., André Kertész: Diary of Light (New York, 1987), pl. 71

Pierre Borhan, André Kertész, His Life and Work (Boston, 1994, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 174

André Kertész (Paris: Centre d'Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou, 1977), unpaginated

Robert Enright, Stranger to Paris: Au Sacre du Printemps Gallerie, 1927 (Toronto: Jane Corkin Gallery, 1992, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 55

Nicholas Durcot, ed., André Kertész: Sixty Years of Photography, 1912-1972 (New York, 1972), p. 116

David Travis, Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection, Starting with Atget (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, in conjunction with the exhibition), rear cover

Pierre Bonhomme, Patrimoine Photographique (Paris, 1999), p. 326

This early print is on double-weight paper with a glossy finish. When examined closely, a 3-inch crease is visible in the print's upper left corner; this is reinforced on the reverse with tissue, and skillfully retouched on the front. There is minor wear on the print's corners, and a small loss from the lower right corner. When the print is viewed in raking light, the photographer's original retouching is visible throughout; this is unobtrusive. While these issues are visible upon close examination, they do not impede upon the overall fine appearance of this rare and early print.
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Nature Morte Chez Mondrian belongs to a small group of domestic still life studies, all taken by Kertész in the mid-1920s, that suffuse the ordinary objects of daily life with poetry and mystery. Taken in the studio of Piet Mondrian, the image is an inventive portrait of the painter, much in the same way that Berenice Abbott's photograph of Jean Cocteau's hands (Lot 45) serves as an enigmatic portrait of Cocteau.  Kertész met Mondrian in 1926, and made not only a traditional portrait of the artist, but also a number of photographs in his studio. It is these studies in the studio that we remember--the artist's bed and easel, the pipe and glasses offered here, the single tulip on a table near the stairs. In one of the earliest critical assessments of Kertész's work, Florent Fels described Kertész as 'un prestigieux créateur de poèmes, et ses métaphores sont d'humbles objets' (L'Art vivant, Volume 4, Number 20, 1 June 1928, p. 417).

Nature Morte Chez Mondrian occupies an important place in Kertész's early exhibition history. It was shown in his first significant one-person exhibition in 1927, at the Au Sacre du Printemps gallery; at the Galerie L'Epoque, Brussels, in 1928; in Essen, at the Fotographie der Gegenwart, 1929; and at the prestigious Film und Foto in Stuttgart that same year. Julien Levy may have included it in one of his pioneering exhibitions in New York in 1932 or 1937. Always recognized as an important work within the photographer's oeuvre, it became one of the first Kertész images to enter a museum collection when a print of it was purchased by the König Albert Museum in Zwickau (cf. Of Paris and New York, entries for cat. nos. 21 and 63).

The print of the image offered here has on its reverse the stamp of Kertész's earliest Paris studio, at 5, Rue de Vanves. This lot is accompanied by a typed letter, signed by Kertész in ink, which was given to the private collector who acquired the photograph from Kertész in 1983. The letter confirms the photograph's printing date and its history.