Provenance
Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, 2016
Exhibited
Unearthed: Photography's Roots, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 17 June - 20 September, this lot
Literature
R. Mapplethorpe, Flora: The Complete Flowers, London: Phaidon, 2016, p. 73
Unearthed: Photography’s Roots, London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2020, p. 111
Artist Biography
Robert Mapplethorpe
American • 1946 - 1989
After studying drawing, painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute in the 1960s, Robert Mapplethorpe began experimenting with photography while living in the notorious Chelsea Hotel with Patti Smith. Beginning with Polaroids, he soon moved on to a Hasselblad medium-format camera, which he used to explore aspects of life often only seen behind closed doors.
By the 1980s Mapplethorpe's focus was predominantly in the studio, shooting portraits, flowers and nudes. His depiction of the human form in formal compositions reflects his love of classical sculpture and his groundbreaking marriage of those aesthetics with often challenging subject matter. Mapplethorpe's style is present regardless of subject matter — from erotic nudes to self-portraits and flowers — as he ceaselessly strove for what he called "perfection of form."
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A VIEW FROM THE GARDEN: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM A PRIVATE COTSWOLDS COLLECTION

5

Robert Mapplethorpe

Orchid

1985
Gelatin silver print, mounted.
38.5 x 38.5 cm (15 1/8 x 15 1/8 in.)
Signed, titled, dated, numbered 10/10 by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, in ink/pencil and estate copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the reverse of the mount.

Estimate
£12,000 - 18,000

Sold for £12,600

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