Edward Steichen - Photographs New York Friday, April 5, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “I have always felt that, when my little sister acquired a husband, I acquired a brother. For with that marriage, there began a warm, close friendship, which has remained both fruitful and wonderful for both Carl and me to this day.”
    —Edward Steichen

    This photograph was originally given by Edward Steichen to poet, journalist, and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg. Steichen was introduced to Sandburg by his sister Lilian in 1907 on the Steichen family’s farm in Wisconsin. The two young men shared an intensity of interest in their respective fields, as well as a belief in finding an artistic voice that was distinctly American yet also emphatically new. Sandburg and Lilian Steichen married in 1908, thus cementing the personal and professional ties between the writer and photographer, ushering in a decades-long period of mutual creativity. Sandburg was a frequent subject for Steichen’s lens, and Steichen designed the jacket for Sandburg’s first book of poems. In 1929, Sandburg published Steichen The Photographer, a limited edition retrospective monograph. The two collaborated on a number of photography-related projects including the wartime Museum of Modern Art exhibition, Road to Victory. Throughout their lives, the two maintained a friendship characterized by a deep admiration of the work of the other. 

     

    This photograph of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen was used on the cover of Helga Sandburg’s 1978 book about her parents, A Great & Glorious Romance: The Story of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen

     

    Edward Steichen’s photograph of his sister and brother-in-law on the cover of Helga Sandburg’s book. 
    • Provenance

      The photographer to Carl Sandburg
      By descent to his daughter, Helga Sandburg

    • Literature

      Steichen, A Life in Photography, pl. 94
      Helga Sandburg, A Great and Glorious Romance, The Story of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen, cover
      Ewiing, Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography, pl. 236

371

"Mr. and Mrs." -- The Sandburgs, Elmhurst, Illinois

1923
Gelatin silver print.
6 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (17.1 x 19.1 cm)
Signed in pencil, titled, dated, and extensively annotated by Grace Mayer, Steichen’s colleague at The Museum of Modern Art, and others in pencil, and with reduction notations red crayon on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $8,890

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
 

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 5 April 2024