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Lot Number
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42
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Author
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TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN 1840-1882
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Title
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'ANCIENT RUINS IN THE CAÑON DE CHELLE, N.M.'
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Year Published
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1873
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Description
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albumen print, on the two-toned Wheeler Survey mount, the photographer's credit, title, 'No. 10,' and survey information in letterpress on the mount, 1873 (Newhall, O'Sullivan, pl. 37) 10 5/8 by 8 in. (27 by 20.3 cm.)
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Lot Note
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The photograph in this and the following five lots are from the Estate of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, two of the 20th-century's most influential critics, writers, and curators of photography. Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was the first curator of the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art and later served as curator, and then director, of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House. Newhall's pioneering 1937 exhibition, Photography 1839–1937, and subsequent volumes on the history of the medium, influenced decades of scholars and general audiences alike. His wife Nancy Newhall (1908-1974), also a prolific author and curator, produced landmark monographs on Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Paul Strand, among others. The Newhalls' personal friendships with many of the leading photographers of their day cemented their formidable reputations in both America and Europe. Timothy O'Sullivan's famous image of the sweeping cliffs and White House Ruins of Canon de Chelle—called by Ansel Adams 'an image of great power and revelation'—was included by Beaumont Newhall in his landmark show Photography 1839–1937 and was reproduced in several Newhall volumes: in multiple editions of his History of Photography, in the Newhalls' 1958 Masters of Photography (this print), and in their early monograph on O'Sullivan from 1966. The Newhalls' print of the image offered here was purchased from the celebrated Lowdermilk's Bookshop in Washington, D. C., in 1942. Founded by William Lowdermilk, a Civil War veteran, in the 1870s, the shop concentrated on American history and politics, with government documents—including Western surveys—as one of its specialties.
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Provenance
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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF BEAUMONT AND NANCY NEWHALL Acquired from William Lowdermilk's Bookshop, Washington, D. C., 1942
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Estimated Price
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USD 15,000.00 - 25,000.00
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Actual Price
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USD 134,500.00
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