Artcurial will hold a two-part photography sale, its main auction of the Spring, on Tuesday, May 15th, at 8 pm and on Wednesday, May 16th, at 2 pm. The auctions will be held at Artcurial, Hotel Dassault, 7-9 Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées, 75008, Paris, France. A printed catalogue is available for these sales and can be ordered through Artcurial.
Again, the first part of the sale will be held on Saturday, Tuesday, May 15th, at 8 pm at the Artcurial facility in Paris. The auction can be previewed from Friday, May 11-Monday, May 14 from 11 am-7 pm, and on the day of the sale from 11 am-2 pm. There are only 60 lots in Part 1 of the sale-- from the early daguerreotype process to recent Adam Fuss rayograms.
The sale will begin with 14 important daguerreotypes, notably lot 13, La Lettre de l’absent, a daguerreotype by Richou, and one of the better genre scenes to come on the French market (estimated at 25000-30000 euros). Also worth noting is lot 5, a group portrait of an Alsatian family made in 1843 (estimated at 10000-12 000 euros). Also in this portion of the sale is "Le Cheval, Surprise", a very important quarter-plate daguerreotype by Louis Auguste Bisson (estimated at 20000-30000 euros). It was on display at both the Orsay Museum and at the New York Metropolitan Museum in 2003 during the important exhibition of French daguerreotypes.
After a couple of important paper negatives, there are some important prints by Piot and Nègre. Other early 19th-century work includes lot 23, which is of special historical interest. This unique salt paper print by Bayard, a view of Montmartre dated 1842, is one of his first prints from a paper negative. Lot 23bis, the classic Le Gray marine, Brick au Clair de Lune, 1856, is estimated at 15000-20000 euros. The sale also includes some key autochromes, a still undervalued process, notably lot 40, a Poupée by an anonymous photographer from the Lumière brother’s circle. This haunting image is estimated at 3000-4000 euros.
From the 20th century, there are a number of top prints, including a vintage print of "Mademoiselle Anita", the iconic Doisneau photographs of a dreamy young Parisian girl. Doisneau often said it was his favorite picture. The print has a great provenance, coming from the Robert Giraud collection (Giraud was a writer and journalist, who introduced the young Doisneau to Paris' shady nightlife). The estimate is 15000-20000 euros.
The second part of the sale will take place on May 16th at 2 pm, will start with the sale of an important private collection from New York. Patiently built over the last 20 years, this collection is especially strong on the first half of the 20th century, with great work from Misonne, Weston, Abbott and Edward Curtis, just to name a few of the photographers in the collection.
The rest of the sale--from lot 135 to lot 330--is a seductive mix of daguerreotypes, autochromes and prints on paper by the following artists: Abbott, Apfelbaum, Arbus, Atget, Bayard, Beard, Bodine, Baldus, Balance, Bisson Freres, Blanc Et Demilly, Boubat, Bourne, Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Charnay, Christenberry, Clift, De Cock, Constant, Curtis, Cuvelier, Danguy, De Meyer, Dieuzaide, Disderi, Doisneau, Du Camp, Echagüe, Eisenstaedt, Emerson, Fassbender, Fenton, Flacheron, Friedlander, Frith, Fuss, Garduno, Gruen, Halsman, Herschtritt, Hong-Oai, Hosoe, Hugo, Hujar, Kenna, Karelin, Lamb, Larsson, Laughlin-Le Gray, Man Ray, Mante & Goldschmidt, Mapplethorpe, Marey, Mayer & Pierson, Misonne, Moulin, Nadar, Naya, Negre, Orkin, Parr, Piot, Pratt, Quinet, Raymond, Rinehart, Ronis, Sabatier Blot, Stettner, Stone, Strand, Sudek, Sutcliffe, Teynard, Thomson, Vishniac, Weegee, Weston, Winogrand, Witkin and Zelma.
The catalogues for both auctions are now online at: http://www.auction.fr/cp/artcurial/ . Just go to the left section on the calendar and click on the photography auction. For catalogue information or to contact the expert for the sale, email Grégory Leroy at gleroy@artcurial.com or call +33 (0) 6 25 94 29 12, or call the general auction number at +33 (0)1 42 99 20 20. When calling from the U.S. add 011 in front and eliminate the (0).
Share This