.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Erwin Blumenfeld is most famous for the elegantly original images he produced for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, as well as for such disparate advertising accounts as Helena Rubinstein, the Ford Motor Company, Van Cleef & Arpels and Dayton's sophisticated department store in Minneapolis.
On arrival in Paris in 1936, Blumenfeld sought to follow in the footsteps of Baron Adolf de Meyer, who two decades earlier, at Condé Nast's recently acquired Vogue magazine, had put fashion photography on the map as a creditable, lucrative profession - and one of considerable glamour. Shots of uninspiring garments, stiffly modeled on robust society women or lifeless mannequins were no longer the order of the day. Instead, they became the product of consummate artistry, created by the most talented fashion photographers of the day - Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton. With the support of Beaton, Blumenfeld joined their ranks at Vogue in 1938, producing his first spreads in the October issue.
The current lot, a striking image for Vogue, of a model wearing a hat and elaborate brooch, probably by Schiaparelli, is an extremely rare, surviving print from Blumenfeld's career in Paris. Although an early example of his fashion work, the image is quintessentially Blumenfeld - a celebration of the enigma of feminine beauty - while the attractive model gravely regards the camera, the mesh brim of her hat veils her features and therefore removes her from any direct interaction with the spectator. The 'veil' persisted throughout Blumenfeld's career and the resulting images were powerfully unconventional and unquestionably influential on the next generation of fashion photographers. A young Irving Penn remarked on Blumenfeld's cleverness and graphic inventiveness, while William Klein's photographs of models smoking through veils, and notably, Hat + 5 Roses (see lot 438) clearly owe a great debt to the older photographer.
This print was a highlight of the influential 1975 exhibition, Fashion: 1900-1939, co-organized by the Scottish Arts Council and The Victoria and Albert Museum and was used for the catalogue's cover illustration (see fig. opposite.)
On arrival in Paris in 1936, Blumenfeld sought to follow in the footsteps of Baron Adolf de Meyer, who two decades earlier, at Condé Nast's recently acquired Vogue magazine, had put fashion photography on the map as a creditable, lucrative profession - and one of considerable glamour. Shots of uninspiring garments, stiffly modeled on robust society women or lifeless mannequins were no longer the order of the day. Instead, they became the product of consummate artistry, created by the most talented fashion photographers of the day - Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton. With the support of Beaton, Blumenfeld joined their ranks at Vogue in 1938, producing his first spreads in the October issue.
The current lot, a striking image for Vogue, of a model wearing a hat and elaborate brooch, probably by Schiaparelli, is an extremely rare, surviving print from Blumenfeld's career in Paris. Although an early example of his fashion work, the image is quintessentially Blumenfeld - a celebration of the enigma of feminine beauty - while the attractive model gravely regards the camera, the mesh brim of her hat veils her features and therefore removes her from any direct interaction with the spectator. The 'veil' persisted throughout Blumenfeld's career and the resulting images were powerfully unconventional and unquestionably influential on the next generation of fashion photographers. A young Irving Penn remarked on Blumenfeld's cleverness and graphic inventiveness, while William Klein's photographs of models smoking through veils, and notably, Hat + 5 Roses (see lot 438) clearly owe a great debt to the older photographer.
This print was a highlight of the influential 1975 exhibition, Fashion: 1900-1939, co-organized by the Scottish Arts Council and The Victoria and Albert Museum and was used for the catalogue's cover illustration (see fig. opposite.)