Paul Strand

platinum print, flush-mounted, signed, titled, and dated by the photographer in green ink and with a Light Gallery stamp on the reverse, matted, framed, 1923

Estate of Paul Strand

Light Gallery, New York

Private Collection

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1990

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Master American Photographs, January - April 1987

Tokyo, The Sezon Museum of Art, The Art of Photography: 1839-1989, March - April 1990

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 19 (this print)

Another print of this image:

Paul Strand: Rebecca (New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1996, in conjunction with the exhibition), cover and pl. 6

Sarah Greenough, Paul Strand: An American Vision (Aperture and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., 1990, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 40

This photograph demonstrates Strand's incomparable ability to produce platinum prints of the highest quality. The print is in essentially condition, and there is nothing to distract from Strand's superb rendering of his subject. When the print is examined very closely in raking light, a very faint crease can be seen on the bridge of Rebecca's nose; a similar smaller crease is also present on her upper lip. These were presumably present in the print prior to mounting, or occurred during mounting. Neither is immediately apparent, and they are only discernable upon close inspection. Also visible in raking light are several discreet areas of Strand's expert retouching. The faint sheen visible upon the print's surface indicates that Strand waxed or varnished it, as was his usual practice. The print is flush-mounted to thin stiff board.
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Paul Strand began his series of portraits of Rebecca Salsbury in 1920 and continued until 1932, the year before their marriage ended, producing over 100 negatives.  Working primarily with an 8 by 10-inch view camera, Strand photographed Salsbury close-up and without props, and contact-printed his best images in rich and somber platinum and palladium metals.   Few portraits from this remarkable series are as engaging as the photograph offered here.  The directness of Salsbury's gaze is disarming, and Strand's deft handling of the photograph's light and dark values demonstrates his ability to capture a moment on film and render it perfectly in a photographic print. 

Strand was a master at the craft of platinum printing, and worked meticulously with all of the variables of the process to produce prints to his satisfaction.  This might involve experimentation with different developers, the addition of bleach, or the use of a number of toning agents.  Strand even manipulated the temperatures of his chemistry in order to create certain effects.  Once a print met his high standards, Strand would varnish the surface to give it the subtle sheen that is visible on the print offered here.   It is through his attention to these many details that Strand produced prints such as this, filled with visual detail and emotional content.   

Belinda Rathbone points out that Strand's series of portraits of Rebecca stands out in the context of his work, for it is the one area where his usual objectivity gives way to a more personal approach.  'Compared with his earlier subject matter,' she writes, 'these portraits of Rebecca seem effortlessly arranged; most important, they succeed in coalescing completely his art and his intimate life . . . Never again would Strand use his art to explore the facets of an intimate relationship' (Paul Strand: Essays on His Life and Work, pp. 81-86).

The bravura platinum print offered here is believed to be one of only two known platinum prints of the image.  The other print, formerly in the collection of Margaret W. Weston, is now in a private West Coast collection.