This photograph comes from the collection of Charles S. Moffett. Moffett, a pre-eminent scholar of Impressionism, enjoyed a singular career straddling institutional and commercial spheres of the art world. After prominent positions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Charlie, as he was most-often known, became Director of the Phillips Collection in the 1990s. In 1998, he began a successful career at Sotheby’s where he oversaw sales of Impressionist and Modern Art for over 15 years. As a curator, Charlie transformed our understanding of Impressionism and its impact on the artists and public of its day. As an auction-house specialist he was directly responsible for bringing masterpieces to the market, and selling them for record-breaking prices. As a colleague, Charlie was always frank and reliably supportive. He possessed a great affection for photography, and amassed an impressive collection of his own, particularly with his wife Lucinda Herrick, in the later years of his life. It is an honor for Phillips to offer these lots from the collection of this art world luminary.
