Estimated Price:

   $   

Realized Price:

   $   

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

Log in or subscribe to view price data

'EQUIVALENT'

measurements note
4 5/8 by 3 5/8 in. (11.8 by 9.2 cm.)

flush-mounted, mounted again to a larger board, numbered '177E' by Doris Bry in pencil on the reverse, matted, in a modern white metal frame, 1926

PROVENANCE

The photographer to Georgia O'Keeffe

Doris Bry, New York, as agent

Acquired by the Gilman Paper Company from the above, 1976

LITERATURE

Pierre Apraxine and Lee Marks, Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company (White Oak Press, 1985), pl. 156 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

Greenough 1159; and 1160 and 1161 (variants)

Therese Mulligan, ed., The Photography of Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O'Keeffe's Enduring Legacy (George Eastman House, 2000), fig. 147

NOTE

In the early 1920s, Alfred Stieglitz began his series of studies of the skies that he dubbed 'Equivalents.' In his 1923 article, entitled 'How I Came to Photograph Clouds' (Amateur Photographer and Photography, 19 September 1923), Stieglitz wrote that he undertook this project to, among other reasons, counter the critic Waldo Frank's assertion that the success of his photographs was due to his having a near-hypnotic power over his sitters. By photographing the sky -- subject matter beyond any sort of control -- Stieglitz sought to prove that the success of his photographs lay solely in his talents as a photographer.

The technical challenge of making a successful photograph of the sky had long been a preoccupation for photographers. In the 19^th century, photographic materials and long exposure times prevented a photographer from capturing a crisp image of the sky. By the 1920s, however, photographic technology had progressed to the extent that photographs of clouds were possible, though still difficult. Stieglitz had a deep understanding of photographic technique, and was always eager for a challenge. In the Equivalents, Stieglitz set himself a two-fold task: to make technically successful photographs of difficult, transitory subject matter; and, more importantly, to make these images aesthetically compelling and meaningful. He wrote:

'I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in 40 years about photography. Through clouds to put down my philosophy of life -- to show that my photographs were not due to subject matter -- not to special trees, or faces, or interiors, to special privileges, clouds were there for everyone. . .' (quoted in Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings, p. 207).

Initially, he grouped his sky studies under the title, Songs of the Sky. Later, he settled upon Equivalents, stating to Dorothy Norman: 'my cloud photographs are equivalents of my most profound life experience, my basic philosophy of life' (Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer, p. 144). The resulting images, masterfully rendered and technically excellent, operate as pure personal expression in the photographic medium.

In Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs, Sarah Greenough locates in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., three variant images made from this negative (OK 177 E): Greenough 1159, 1160, and 1161. Of these, the print offered here matches Greenough 1159 most closely in terms of tonality. Greenough 1160 is slightly lighter in tone, while the image is reversed in 1161. Greenough locates 16 other prints of 1159, all but 2 in institutional collections, and one print each of 1160 and 1161. Doris Bry accounts for a total of 27 prints made from this negative, including variants.