Sarah Krueger, Specialist and Auctioneer, at the rostrum during the 3 April Evening Sale of 'The Odyssey of Collecting'
Led by exceptionally rare 19th century images from The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and complimented by contemporary images in Photographs, this season in New York was characterized by incredible breadth and depth. Phillips set ten new world auction records and achieved $9,112,625 over two days last week.
After the sales concluded, Vanessa Hallett, Deputy Chairman, Americas and Worldwide Head of Photographs, said "There was spirited bidding for works from the 19th century in The Odyssey of Collecting, which offered exceptionally rare images. Additionally, our auction of Photographs was led by Robert Mapplethorpe's iconic Tulips and Henri Cartier-Bresson's On the Banks of the Marne, France." The most notable results included works by Benjamin Brecknell Turner, Gustave Le Gray, Charles Aubry, Carleton Watkins, László Moholy-Nagy, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Awol Erizku.
Benjamin Brecknell Turner Trees (Pepperharrow Park), circa 1853. Sold for quadruple its estimate at $162,500. This albumen print is credited and annotated 'Talbotype' in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount.
Gustave Le Gray Troncs d'Arbres, Fontainebleau, 1855. Sold for $200,000. The photographs that Gustave Le Gray made in the forest of Fontainebleau in the mid-1850s represent a refinement of his technique and photographic vision. He had previously photographed in the forest – the famed outdoor studio for painters of the Barbizon school – in the 1840s. Those early trips saw him master the waxed-paper negative process whereas these later images from the 1850s were made with wet-plate glass negatives, a new technology that Le Gray also mastered to his own high standards.
Robert Mapplethorpe Tulips, 1977. Sold for $298,000. Among Robert Mapplethorpe's first pictures of flowers, this diptych was commissioned by renowned collector Paul F. Walter and is characteristic of his early compositions. In 1988, it was exhibited in his first museum retrospective in the United States at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the result achieved is a world record for one of his earlier unique works.
Awol Erizku Girl with a Bamboo Earring, 2009. In his inaugural sale at auction, Erizku's Girl with a Bamboo Earring sold in a battle among multiple bidders for $52,500. This undeniable descendant of Johannes Vermeer's famed Girl with a Pearl Earring characterizes Erizku's marriage of popular culture and fine art. It is a formal declaration of beauty not only within the history of art but culture at large.
To learn more about these recent auctions and upcoming opportunities to sell with us, contact our Photographs specialists in New York and London here.