Lot 66
  • 66

Johan Hagemeyer

Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description

  • Johan Hagemeyer
  • 'ROOF-CITY'
  • Gelatin silver print
  • 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches
mounted, signed, titled, and dated in pencil and with a printed numerical label on the mount, 1922

Provenance

Weston Gallery, Carmel, 1994

Literature

Roger Myers and Judith Leckrone, Johan Hagemeyer Collection (Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, 1985), 81:111:101, p. 23

Condition

This print, on matte-surface paper, is in generally excellent condition. In raking light, a few deposits of original retouching and faint silvering in the dark areas are visible. Upon close inspection, the emulsion at the left edge of the print is lifting ever-so-slightly. There is a tack-hole in the center of the upper edge of the mount, and a faint tideline (approximately 3 1/4 inches) at the upper right edge of the mount. The mount corners are lightly creased, and there is a slight indentation in the upper mount edge. There is scattered, faint foxing on the front of the mount. The small printed label at the lower right corner of the mount reads '122,' and appears to have been trimmed. The number '750' is in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount. None of these affect the image. On the reverse, '23-0032' is in an unidentified hand in pencil. There is darkened rectangle, possibly offsetting, on the reverse of the mount. There are also a few tape remnants on the reverse of the mount.
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.

Catalogue Note

In 1917, the Dutch horticulturalist Johan Hagemeyer settled in San Francisco, where he operated a succession of successful portrait studios.  In the mid-1920s, his studio was located at 177 Post Street, just blocks from Union Square; he made many photographs from the roof of this building, of which the present image is one.  The dome in the foreground is likely that of legendary San Francisco department store City of Paris, now the site of San Francisco's Neiman Marcus, where the glass dome is preserved.  Another print of the image offered here and a pendant, entitled 'Castles of Today,' are in the collection of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.  

Like Charles Sheeler (Lot 46), Hagemeyer believed that the man-made environment of his time was valid material for artistic interpretation: he planned a book of photographs, never realized, to show the 'beauty of American industrial work.'  His photographs of buildings, among them San Francisco's nascent skyscrapers, are modernist in outlook, despite their Pictorial overtones.

Hagemeyer was an enthusiastic gallerist, and he regularly showed his own photographs and the work of others in his galleries in San Francisco and Carmel, where he is credited with opening the first art gallery in this bohemian community. The print offered here, on a large exhibition-style mount and with a printed numerical label, may have been shown in one of his own exhibitions.

“I am interested in everything contemporary and believe that we should live in our own time—seeing the beauty of today instead of worshipping that of the past. Modern factories and buildings are as beautiful as old castles. They are the castles of today.”

Johan Hagemeyer, 1927