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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, EUROPE
In 1936, there was a single, extraordinary, outdoor 'sitting' when Charis Wilson, Edward Weston's favorite model, accompanied him on an outing to the Oceano shore. She expected only to watch and assist as he continued the great series of dune landscapes, but enchanted by the beach's silence and beauty, took off her clothes and 'went diving down a steep slope.' Weston turned away from his landscape and instead made a series of ten images of Charis on the sand. In this, perhaps his most successful series of nude studies, Weston elimatinates all extraneous detail, including shadows - there is a mere silvery halo around a perfect, virtually translucent body that appears to float over the lightly textured ground. The figure is relaxed, self-contained, unselfconscious and therefore quite extraordinarily sensual.
Edward Weston (1886-1958)
Nude on Sand, Oceano, 1936
Details
Edward Weston (1886-1958)
Nude on Sand, Oceano, 1936
gelatin silver print
initialed, dated in pencil (on the mount); numbered '235N' and dated in pencil (on the reverse of the mount)
7¼ x 9½in. (18.4 x 24.1cm.)
Nude on Sand, Oceano, 1936
gelatin silver print
initialed, dated in pencil (on the mount); numbered '235N' and dated in pencil (on the reverse of the mount)
7¼ x 9½in. (18.4 x 24.1cm.)
Literature
Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs, Center for Creative Photography, 1981, fig. 927, n.p.