Martin Munkácsi

the photographer's '5 Prospect Place, New York City' studio stamp, fragments of an old typed caption label, and inscribed 'credit for H. B.,' dated and annotated in unidentified hands in pencil on the reverse, 1933

Winn Doubleday Gallery, Ocean Ridge, Florida

Sotheby's New York, 18 April 1997, Sale 6973, Lot 320

This print:

'Cruise: Escape to the Sun,' Harper's Bazaar, December 1934, p. 86

'Portrait of Munkácsi,' Coronet, January 1940, p. 28

Other prints of this image:

Nancy Hall Duncan, The History of Fashion Photography (New York, 1979), p. 70

Nancy White and John Esten, Style in Motion (New York, 1979), p. 24

F. C. Gundlach, ed., Martin Munkácsi (New York: International Center of Photography, 2006), p. 240

This early print, on double-weight paper with a semi-glossy surface and trimmed to the image, is in generally very good condition. The edges are rubbed, and the corners are bumped, with tiny chipping. There is a sharp crease in the lower left corner that appears to break the emulsion somewhat. When examined in raking light, the following are visible: small deposits of original retouching overall, and several faint scratches and indentations. These do not detract from the attractive appearance of this early, scarce print. The reverse is soiled, with deposits of blue ink. The following are on the reverse in pencil: 'Atom-Munkacsi by L. Stessner,' '13 (underlined),' '1933,' 'credit for H. B.,' '28 1/4 (circled in red crayon),' 'p. 28 Jan. Coronet,' and 'Marks Article #2' (Robert Marks was the author of 'Portrait of Munkácsi' for the January 1940 Coronet magazine).
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.

Taken soon after Martin Munkácsi moved to the United States from Germany, this photograph appeared in the article ‘Cruise: Escape to the Sun’ in Harper’s Bazaar’s December 1934 issue.  The caption read, ‘Smooth, silver-white sea satin, sleek over the sunburn, a coat of rippling white wool.  The suit is made of a new kind of lastex-and-satin, by B. V. D. From Bonwit Teller. Marshall Field, Chicago. I. Magnin, California.’

The previous year, Munkácsi had forever changed fashion photography with a similar image of socialite Lucile Brokaw running on a Long Island beach.  New Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow, on a mission to reinvigorate the magazine, had contacted Munkácsi after remembering Edward Steichen’s commendation of his work. It was an unlikely opportunity for the photojournalist who was more accustomed to photographing sports and who had never before taken a fashion photograph.  His daughter Joan wrote,

‘He brought his models out to the beach and did what was natural for him—shot them running across the sand, hair flying and capes streaming behind them.  No one had ever done anything like it before; fashion sittings were static, elegant studio events, full of artifice and aristocratic poses.  But to take real women into the real world of movement, light and air, of life—that was his revolution’ (Martin Munkácsi: A Retrospective, unpaginated).

Munkácsi’s influence has been felt in fashion photography since that time.  Richard Avedon paid homage to the photographer with his 1957 photograph, Carmen (Homage to Munkácsi), recalling Munkácsi’s The Puddle Jumper from 1933.  

". . . there were many lessons . . . all learned from Munkácsi, though I never met him.  He brought a taste for happiness and honesty and a love of women to what was, before him, a joyless, loveless, lying art.  He was the first. He did it first, and today the world of what is called fashion is peopled with Munkácsi’s babies, his heirs." 

Richard Avedon, 1963