Edward Weston

mounted to large buff-colored card, signed and dated in pencil on the mount, 1927

Likely from the collection of Rockwell Kent

Witkin Gallery, New York

Collection of James R. Rochlis, acquired from the above, 1969

Sotheby's New York, 17 October 2003, Sale 7925, Lot 145

Conger, p. 84, figure F.3

Frances D. McMullen, 'Lowly Things That Yield Strange Stark Beauty,' New York Times Magazine, 16 November 1930, p. 7

Ben Maddow, Edward Weston: Fifty Years (Aperture, 1973), p. 149

Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art & Culture, 1900-1950 (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1999), fig. 387, p. 201

Brett Abbott, In Focus: Edward Weston (J. Paul Getty, Museum, 2005), front wrapper and pl. 25

In addition to the print of this image in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Conger locates the following prints: -a print in the J. Paul Getty Museum. This is a print made in 1933 on glossy paper -a print in the Art Institute of Chicago. This is a print made by Weston's son Brett, probably in the 1950s. -a print in the Harrison Memorial Library, Carmel. This is also believed to be a somewhat later print. This rare and exquisite print of Edward Weston’s double shell photograph comprises the definitive early state of the image. Printed on matte-surface paper and affixed to a large buff mount, the photograph precedes a numbered edition and carries only Weston’s early signature and date on the mount. This striking early print is essentially in excellent condition. A fine patina of silvering is visible in raking light overall. In the upper left corner, there is a small area of irregular oxidation, as if the oxidation were forming around a fingerprint or similar shape. Also visible in raking light in the upper right quadrant are 2 pin-point-sized accretions of indeterminate nature. Upon very close examination, a pen-point-sized opaque deposit near the lower right edge of the image and 3 small fingerprints in the upper right corner are visible. The photograph is mounted to cream-colored thin board. The photograph and mount appear to have at one time been close to a fire, and the left and lower edges of the mount show indications of this. This does not affect the print. The left edge of the mount appears to have been singed in places and there are resultant tiny losses of board. The lower edge of the mount is darkened and shows what might be smoke damage. In the upper left corner of the mount is an area that has faint discoloration, so slight that one might not notice it unless it were pointed out. This area extends to the upper left corner of the print, and whatever its origin, it may be responsible for the uneven silvering of the upper left corner of the print described above. We have chosen to present the photograph and mount as they are, without any trimming of the mount, which could easily remove the two damaged edges. We believe that the damage on the mount helps to establish the provenance of the print, as follows: James Rochlis's old inventory notes on this photograph indicate it may have come originally from the collection of Rockwell Kent. Our documentation of the relationship between Rockwell Kent and Edward Weston is given in the catalogue entry. There is no way to definitively prove, however, that Rockwell Kent did, in fact, at one time own this photograph. We do know, however, that in April of 1969, Rockwell Kent's home and studio suffered a devastating fire; and that James Rochlis purchased this photograph from Lee Witkin in May of 1969. We present the mount as it is, with two discolored edges, as the possible definitive link between the American artist Rockwell Kent and Edward Weston. The reverse of the mount is lightly soiled and there are stray graphite marks.
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.

This rare and exquisite print of Edward Weston’s double shell photograph comprises the definitive early state of the image.  Printed on matte-surface paper and affixed to a large buff mount, the photograph precedes a numbered edition and carries only Weston’s early signature and date on the mount.  Later in the 1920s, Weston would make the transition to paper with a glossy surface, and these prints on glossier paper present a very different account of the subject.

The significance of Weston’s shell photographs to his oeuvre and to the history of art cannot be overestimated.  His photographs of shells, placed before a plain, dark background, exemplify his achievement as an artist.  These deceptively simple arrangements belie the complexity of their conception and their making, the years of evolution in Weston’s own vision, and his countless trials with objects before the camera.   In a world inundated with photographic imagery, Weston’s shell photographs continue to resonate, both in the history of photography and in the broader category of twentieth-century art as a whole.    

Conger notes that this double shell image was included in important early Weston exhibitions, among them ones at the Seattle Fine Arts Society in 1928, the Delphic Gallery in New York in 1930, and the Morgan Camera Shop in Los Angeles in 1939.   The New York Times, in its fine review of the landmark Delphic Gallery exhibition, chose the present image as the lead illustration.   The reviewer, Frances McMullen, praised above all Weston’s transcendent photographs of the ordinary—vegetables, fruit, rocks, and shells.  ‘The result is a beauty that is entirely photographic,’ McMullen wrote, ‘relying for its peculiar quality upon exact rendition of the physical texture of things . . . The technique is one of detail . . . relentlessly intent ’(New York Times, 16 November 1930).   

This photograph was for several decades owned by the pioneering photographs collector James J. Rochlis (1916 – 2002), whose collection was offered in these rooms in October 2003.  One of Lee Witkin’s most important clients in the Witkin Gallery’s early years, Rochlis was a successful businessman with Chris-Craft Industries, as well as an accomplished photographer.   Provenance notes kept by Rochlis and his wife Riva indicate that the present print likely came from the collection of the artist Rockwell Kent.   From Weston’s California daybook, we know that Weston corresponded with Kent in the spring of 1928.  Creative Art magazine, for which Kent was a contributing editor, published an article by Weston later that year, illustrated with another of Weston’s double-shell photographs (Conger 545). Although there are few further published documents between Kent and Weston, Weston included Rockwell Kent in a list of sponsors for his first Guggenheim fellowship in 1936.  Physical aspects of the print’s mount may also confirm a Kent provenance. 

Weston recorded eighteen prints of this study in his negative log at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, but few early prints have been located at the time of this writing.  There is no print in the nearly definitive Edward Weston collection of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.  Conger (F.3) lists prints in four other institutions, but only one is likely to be as early as the print offered here, that in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, a gift of Albert Bender.   Other than the present print, no print of this image in this superb early state is believed to have appeared at auction.