Anita [nude back], 51N, 1925

Name: EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)
Brand: Anita [nude back], 51N, 1925
Price: 200000.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

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USD 200,000 - USD 250,000

Closed: 6 Oct 2022

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EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)

Anita [nude back], 51N, 1925

Closed: 6 Oct 2022

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EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)

Anita [nude back], 51N, 1925
gelatin silver print
annotated 'EW', and credited, titled, dated and numbered 'EW #21', in pencil (verso)
image/sheet: 8 1/4 x 7 1/8 in. (20.9 x 18 cm.)

Gifted by the artist to scholar and writer Anita Brenner (1905-1974), Mexico, 1925;
by descent to daughter Susannah Brenner Glusker, Mexico;
acquired from the above by the present owner.

Edward Weston, ‘From My Day Book’, Creative Art: A Magazine of Fine & Applied Art, August 1928.
H.L. Dungan, ‘Art and Artists—Music and Musicians: ...Just as a man lost in a forest...’, Oakland Tribune, July 30, 1933.
Nancy Newhall, The Photographs of Edward Weston, The Musuem of Modern Art, New York, 1946, p. 15.
'Edward Weston: A Retrospective Portfolio', Popular Photography, February 1955. p. 69.
Robert L. Gale, Great Photography Series 1: Studies of the Human Form by Two Masters: John Rawlings and Edward Weston, Maco Magazine Corporation, New York, 1957, p. 85.
Minor White, ‘On the Strength of a Mirage’, Art in America, Spring 1958, pp. 52–55.
Edward Weston, The Flame of Recognition, Aperture, New York, 1971, p. 19.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston: Fifty Years, Aperture, New York, 1973, p. 66.
Ben Maddow, Edward Weston: His Life, Aperture, New York, 1973, p. 141.
Edward Weston, The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Aperture, New York, 1973, pl. 21.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston: Nudes, Aperture, New York, 1977, p. 34.
Edward Weston, Weston's Westons: Portraits and Nudes, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989, pl. 13.
Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, Tucson, 1992, n.p., no. 186.
Edward Weston, The Flame of Recognition, Aperture, New York, 1993, p. 19.
Exhibition Catalogue, Edward Weston: la Mirada de la Ruptura, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico, 1994, p. 46.
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. et al., Edward Weston: Photography and Modernism, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1999, pl. 19.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston: Life Work, Lodima Press, Revere, Pa., 2003, pl. 48.
Amy Conger, Edward Weston: The Form of Nude, Phaidon, New York, 2005, fig. 10, p. 18.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston's Book of Nudes, The J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles, 2007, pl. 3.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston: 125 Photographs, Ammo Books, California, 2012, p. 76.
Edward Weston, Edward Weston 1886-1958, Taschen, Cologne, 2017, p. 89.

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Lot Essay

'To the outer world I was a deserter, but I was not. If I had remained under conditions which could not have been, and never will be changed, I would have mentally poisoned all around me; destroyed them, my work, myself.' -- Edward Weston

Convinced of these words, a courageous Edward Weston left his California community and wider family for Mexico in 1923. With his thirteen-year-old son Chandler (1910-1995) on one side and his protégé Tina Modotti (1896-1942) on the other, Weston set out for new horizons, new aspirations and most importantly, a new aesthetic.

When Weston arrived in Mexico, he was creatively in transition. No longer was he interested in the romanticized soft focus of the Photo-Secession, but now the clear crisp inherent qualities of the camera enticed him; form and line were his muse. Weston’s Daybooks give insight into his daily endeavors to articulate his new visual language. In an October 21, 1925 entry with the heading ‘Form Follows Function’, Weston described his arduous two-week project photographing his toilet. He marveled at the lines and shapes of this porcelain receptacle, pronouncing ‘here was every sensuous curve of the “human form divine.”’ Just one week after being immersed in the formal beauty and pristine contours, of this piece of hardware, Weston was compelled to engage a new curvaceous, divine subject: the confident scholar and journalist Anita Brenner (1905-1974).

The vintage print of Weston’s 51N, 1925 offered here, depicts one of fifteen poses captured on the day Anita Brenner entered into Weston’s studio November 11th. Still shaving and feeling uninspired, Weston attempted to put Anita off, but as a determined Brenner undressed, he recalled ‘and then appeared to me the most exquisite lines, forms, volumes...’ Instinctively reinterpreting the glassy voluptuous body of the toilet, Weston traced Brenner’s body with the lens of his Graflex, sensuously molding her outline, which he would print onto a dark enigmatic background. As clean and pure as porcelain, Brenner’s body sways slightly to one side; her arms and head tucked tightly to her body, leaving our eyes only to marvel at a smooth ambiguous form. Printed on a velvety paper that conveys great dimensionality, Brenner’s body appears almost tangible. Two days after Brenner’s sitting, Weston confessed that these images, ‘retain their importance as my finest set of nudes—that is in their approach to aesthetically stimulating form.’

Weston gave the print offered here to Brenner as a gift, making this a particularly special object. This is one of only two known prints of the image made immediately after the sitting and presented to the model. Early prints of the image are extremely rare; others are held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.