HARRY CALLAHAN (1912–1999)

Eleanor, Chicago, 1948

Details

HARRY CALLAHAN (1912–1999)
Eleanor, Chicago, 1948
gelatin silver print, mounted on board
signed in ink with typed credit and title on affixed label (mount, verso)
image/sheet: 7 3/4 x 9 5/8 in. (19.6 x 24.4 cm.)
mount: 15 x 16 in. (38 x 40.6 cm.)

Provenance

The Estate of photographer Arthur Siegel (1913–1978), Chicago;
Private collection, Chicago;
Houk Friedman, New York;
acquired from the above by the present owner, 1992.

Literature

Sherman Paul, Harry Callahan, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967, p. 13.
John Szarkowski, Callahan, Aperture, Inc., New York, 1976, p. 97.
Anne Kennedy and Nicholas Callaway, Eleanor: Harry Callahan, The Friends of Photography, Camel, 1984, p. 22.
Julian Cox, Henry Callahan: Eleanor, Steidl, Göttingen, 2007, pl. 19, p. 61.
Dirk Luckow (ed.) et al., Harry Callahan, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2013, p. 77.

Exhibited

Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, An American Portrait: Photographs from the Collection of Diann and Thomas Mann, April 1–June 12, 1994, no. 117.

Lot Essay

Harry Callahan photographed his wife Eleanor more than any other subject, and ‘in an endless number of ways’, beginning in 1947. His poetic representations of her, sometimes accompanied by their daughter Barbara and sometimes not, placed her in amidst urban environments, in parks, on the street, in lake Michigan, and both clothed and nude. This extensive and collective portrait of a woman is reminiscent of the centrality that O’Keeffe played in the personal and professional life of Alfred Stieglitz.

The present lot is a vintage, mounted print, signed by the artist.

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