Alfred Stieglitz

platinum print, signed, titled, and dated in pencil in the margin, 1915

The photographer to Aline and Charles Liebman

To their descendants

Christie’s New York, 4 October 1994, Sale 7958, Lot 9

Greenough 421

Doris Bry, Exhibition of Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz (National Gallery of Art, 1958), pl. 3

Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer (New York, 1960), pl. XXVII

Mike Weaver, ed., The Art of Photography, 1839-1989 (Yale University Press, 1989), pl. 200

In Focus: Alfred Stieglitz (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), pl. 15

The print is in essentially excellent condition. On the reverse, '15' is written in pencil.
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 platinum print has tones that range from a deep lush gray to creamy white.  In terms of its evocation of a winter twilight scene, the print is thoroughly compelling.  As a technical feat, its depiction of a snow-covered tree demonstrates Stieglitz's formidable abilities as a printer.  Snow is a notoriously difficult photographic subject—its stark whiteness tends to throw the rest of the photograph into deep shadow.  Stieglitz has masterfully handled the white values in this print, while also coaxing a great deal of detail out of the darker areas.  In doing so, he has taken a scene that would have been, in a lesser photographer's hands, a technical exercise and rendered it with great sensitivity, capturing the quiet poetry of the moment. 

In a letter of 14 December 1917, Stieglitz described to Georgia O’Keeffe a visit he’d had with Charles Sheeler the day before.  ‘He is always fine,’ Stieglitz wrote. ‘Wears splendidly.  I am to have three of his wonderful photographs in exchange . . . ’  As Sarah Greenough recounts, the photographers, in the end, exchanged four photographs each: Sheeler gave Stieglitz four of his Doylestown interiors, and Stieglitz gave Sheeler two prints of the galleries at ‘291,’ a view from the back window there, and a print of the image offered here.  ‘It’s hellish hard work for me to get what I want—& I don’t want to give him a print which isn’t A1 + + — A 1 plus plus —,’ Stieglitz continued in the letter.  Sheeler’s print of the present photograph is now in The Museum of Modern Art, a gift from Sheeler in 1941 (Greenough, Letters, Vol. 1, p. 221 and fn450).  

The present photograph was acquired directly from Stieglitz by Charles and Aline Liebman.  Aline Meyer Liebman, a photographer herself and an active patron of the arts, was the sister of wealthy banker Eugene Meyer, Jr., whose wife Agnes helped underwrite Stieglitz’s avant-garde periodical ‘291.’

In Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set, Sarah Greenough locates only four prints of this image, aside from that offered here, in the collections of the following institutions: the National Gallery of Art; Sheeler's print at The Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the J. Paul Getty Museum.  Another print was sold by Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales in 2012.