Although not generally known as a portraitist, Eggleston’s pictures of people make up an important subset of his oeuvre. While he tends to focus upon family and close friends, he rarely identifies these subjects in his titles. Of this image, Eggleston comments, ‘This is Devoe, a distant relative of mine (although I can’t remember exactly how), but also a friend. She is dead now, but we were very close. She was a very sweet and charming lady. I took this picture in the yard at the side of her house. I would often visit her there in Jackson. I remember I found the color of her dress and the chair very exciting, and everything worked out instantly. I think this is the only picture I ever took of her, but I would say it sums her up. I didn’t pose her at all – I never do, usually because it all happens so quickly, but I don’t think I would have moved her in any way. I’m still very pleased with the photograph.’

This photograph comes from a select group of large-format dye transfer prints William Eggleston made in 2015 that has become known as The Magnificent Seven. This group consists of seven of his best known and most iconic photographs – photographs which have come to be associated with his artistic achievement over seven decades. To realize this project, Eggleston worked closely with master printers Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli who had sourced a stock of dye transfer materials, which had long before been discontinued by Kodak. Eggleston completed the set of seven dye transfer prints, each a photographic masterpiece, in an edition of ten. Each is the largest dye transfer print of the image ever executed. This is the first time photographs from The Magnificent Seven have appeared at auction.

The Magnificent Seven present a concise overview of Eggleston’s career. The appellation draws comparisons to cinema and the financial markets. Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film masterpiece The Seven Samurai was initially released in the United States under the title The Magnificent Seven. In 1960, Kurosawa’s screenplay was adapted into a Western, the blockbuster film The Magnificent Seven. Much later, financial analyst Michael Hartnett used the term Magnificent Seven to describe the stock of the seven dominant companies in the stock market.

Whether the comparison is to cinema or the financial markets, the term Magnificent Seven refers to a selection of seven archetypal entities chosen from many for their excellence. In all instances the seven are the best of the group, each a perfect example of its type, that also represent the whole. It is a perfect name for this carefully selected suite of masterworks by William Eggleston. 

The photographs in this sale are master prints from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli of Color Vision Imaging Laboratory. They are the perfected dye transfer prints by which subsequent prints in the edition were judged. Acknowledged masters of the exacting dye transfer process, Mr. Stricherz and Ms. Malli achieved a level of skill in their craft that has not been surpassed. Working in partnership with William Eggleston and other eminent photographers, they have played a crucial role in raising the standard for color photography. Founded in New York City in 1981, CVI Lab became a destination for photographers looking for the finest color prints possible. Mr. Stricherz and Ms. Malli have steadily pushed the dye transfer technique forward, fine tuning the process’s many variables into a highly expressive, visually arresting, and archivally stable medium. For more information on Guy Stricherz, Irene Malli, and CVI Lab, click here.