Edward Weston

mounted, initialed and dated in pencil on the mount, signed, titled, dated, and numbered 'PO43-CNLJ-1' in pencil on the reverse, 1943 (Conger 1742)

Frank H. Boos Gallery, 1 February 2001, Lot 797

In addition to the print of this image at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Conger locates prints in the following institutional collections: Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and a project print at Santa Cruz. The figure in the top left window in this image is the artist Jean Kellogg, at whose studio Weston made this photograph. Weston's son, Neil, takes a position in the upper right window, holding a tea kettle and a mason's square trowel. Weston's wife, Charis, is seated partially nude in the lower left window, holding a kerosene lamp, while her brother, Leon, wears a pith helmet and dangles an artist's mannequin and a frying pan from the top center window. Amy Conger writes that Weston was amused by Kellogg's interest in Jay Hambidge's treatise on art, "Elements of Dynamic Symmetry" (1926). Lampooning Hambidge's strict mathematical approach to composition, Weston created this uncharacteristically lighthearted image, whose clever whimsy belies the photographer's great instinctive talent at composition and his ability to corral the range of tones from absolute black to bright white with finesse and subtlety. This photograph is on semi-glossy paper and is mounted to thin, smooth off-white board. This rich and highly detailed print is in essentially excellent condition. When examined closely in raking light, two small slightly raised areas can be seen on the right side of the image, likely due to particles trapped between print and board during the mounting process. Very close scrutiny reveals a tiny chip in the emulsion in the left portion of the top edge. There is very faint age-appropriate silvering on the print's periphery. There is some very minor soiling and age-darkening on the front and reverse of the mount. This image is reproduced in the following books: Edward Weston: The Last Years in Carmel, p. 90 Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston, fig. 83 Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition, page 83 Portraits and Nudes, plate 67 Photography and Modernism, plate 136 Taschen, page 221
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The figure in the top left window in this image is the artist Jean Kellogg, at whose studio Weston made this photograph.  Weston's son, Neil, takes a position in the upper right window, holding a tea kettle and a mason's square trowel.  Weston's wife, Charis, is seated partially nude in the lower left window, holding a kerosene lamp, while her brother, Leon, wears a pith helmet and dangles an artist's mannequin and a frying pan from the top center window.  Amy Conger writes that Weston was amused by Kellogg's interest in Jay Hambidge's treatise on art, "Elements of Dynamic Symmetry" (1926).  Lampooning Hambidge's strict mathematical approach to composition, Weston created this uncharacteristically lighthearted image, whose clever whimsy belies the photographer's great instinctive talent at composition and his ability to corral the range of tones from absolute black to bright white with finesse and subtlety.