EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)

Nude, 1934

Details

EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)
Nude, 1934
gelatin silver print, flush-mounted on board
signed, dated and variously numbered in pencil (flush mount, verso)
image/sheet/flush mount: 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. (8.2 x 11.4 cm.)

Provenance

Cole Weston (1919–2003);
David van Riper (El Mochuelo Gallery, Santa Barbara);
acquired from the above by a private collector;
Christie's, New York, April 21, 1994, lot 393;
acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

Ben Maddow, Edward Weston: Fifty Years, Aperture Foundation, New York, 1973, p. 173.
Charis Wilson, Edward Weston: Nudes, Aperture Foundation, New York, 1977, p. 64.
Peter C. Bunnell, EW 100: Centennial Essays in Honor of Edward Weston, The Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1986, p. 86.
Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, 1992, fig. 853/1934.
Nancy Newhall, Edward Weston’s Book of Nudes, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2007, pl. 8.

Lot Essay

The present lot is originally from the collection of Cole, the artist’s fourth son. Weston was enamored of this particular image and Charis’s graceful authenticity.

She leaned over in her acrobatic way—which might be called artificial, but is not artificial to her—until her breasts touched her thighs—her arms followed the movement toward the base, completing a form of architectural solidity and significance.

— Edward Weston

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