Ernest Benecke - The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something Foundation New York Tuesday, October 3, 2017 | Phillips

The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy...

New York 3 October 2017

  • Provenance

    Collection of Werner Bokelberg
    Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Fine Photographs, New York, 1994

  • Literature

    'Ernest Benecke's Lost Treasure', The New York Times Magazine, 6 March 1994, p. 45 (this print)

  • Catalogue Essay

    This photograph, by the obscure 19th-century photographer Ernest Benecke, was part of the now-legendary discovery of a portfolio of 142 prints at a country auction in Germany in 1992. Benecke had previously been known by only a handful of attributed images, and this trove is responsible for our current understanding of his place in the early history of photography of the Holy Land. While other photographers working along the Nile in the 1850s focused primarily on ancient architecture, and included human figures only occasionally for a sense of scale, Benecke made people his principle subjects. More than any other photographs of the time, Benecke’s images convey a sense of the cultural life of the region.

122

Ernest Benecke

Nubiens traversant le Nil

1852
Salt print.
6 5/8 x 8 3/4 in. (16.8 x 22.2 cm)
Credit, title and date in the negative; printed title 'Nubie' and titled, dated in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $20,000

Contact Specialist
Rachel Peart
Specialist
+1 212 940 1246

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairman, Americas

General Enquiries:
+1 212 940 1245

The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something Foundation

New York 3 October 2017