Robert Frank

signed by Mary Frank, the photographer's former wife, in pencil on the reverse, framed, circa 1948, probably printed in the 1950s

Collection of Mary Frank, 2004

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 2007

'2nd Prize—Individual Pictures: The Poet's Camera Sees Everything,' LIFE, 26 November 1951, p. 21

Photography at The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, vol. XIX, no. 4, 1952, cover

Robert Frank, The Lines of My Hand (New York, 1989), unpaginated

Robert Frank, Black White and Things (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994), pl. 20

Sarah Greenough and Philip Brookman, Robert Frank: Moving Out (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994), p. 31

Sarah Greenough, Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 2009), p. 46 and pl. 45

Robert Frank (Aperture, 1976), p. 89

This warm-toned early print, on double-weight paper with a very slight sheen, is in generally very good condition. Its overall appearance--warm tonality and the double-weight paper that reads as almost matte-surface but actually has a slight sheen--conforms to Frank's early printing style. The margin edges are rubbed and age-darkened, and the corners are bumped. There are small creases in the lower margin and corners and a pale rust-colored droplet deposit of indeterminate nature in the right margin near the edge. When examined in raking light, a few faint and soft handling creases are visible in the lower portion. What appear to be scratches and tiny spots are in the negative and are not physical features of the print itself. None of these issues detracts from the attractive appearance of this print. The reverse of the print exhibits faint soiling and age-darkening at the edges. In addition to Mary Frank's signature, gallery inventory numbers 'PF71030' and '(new 96620)' are written in pencil at the lower edge on the reverse. When examined with ultraviolet light, this print appears to fluoresce slightly.
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.
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Street Line, New York (34th Street), like Chair, Paris (Lot 5), figured prominently in Robert Frank's early career in New York.  It was among the first four photographs by Frank purchased by The Museum of Modern Art in 1950, along with Chair, Paris; White Tower on 14th Street, New York; and Peru (heads in a landscape).  These were shown in MoMA's 1950 exhibition, 51 American Photographers, along with new works by Harry Callahan, Irving Penn, Frederick Sommer, and Art Sinsabaugh, among others.  In 1952, it appeared on the cover of the Museum's bulletin.

At Edward Steichen’s urging, Frank had entered LIFE magazine’s Young Photographers Contest in the fall of 1951 and was awarded second prize in the ‘Individual Pictures’ category.  LIFE published three photographs—Street Line, My Family, and Paris/Tulip—in its 26 November issue, under the title, ‘The Poet’s Camera Sees Everything,’ with the following text:

‘Second Prize was won by Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, 27.  A contest judge called him “a poet with a camera,” and Frank himself declares, “When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.”  Scorning trick pictures and overdone fads, Frank aims his camera at familiar “little” things—his wife nursing their child, an empty street in Manhattan, a young man who has bought a flower to surprise his girl—and from these he tries “to capture a moment.”  By Frank’s stubbornly high standards such moments are scarce.  “I can be happy if I have a few good pictures,” he says, “no one has a very good one very often.”’

Street Line, New York was selected by the photographer in 1952 for his planned, but at the time unpublished, volume, Black White and Things, the definitive statement of the young photographer’s work in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The book is divided into three sections, as suggested by the title, and Street Line appears as the final plate in the book's White section.  This strikingly graphic image of an empty 34th Street in Manhattan presages the famous 'U. S. 285, New Mexico,' published in The Americans later in the decade.