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Notes: this print was formerly in the collection of the marin family, mexico city, and descended to collector roberto donis. Tina Modotti was born in Italy and emigrated to San Francisco in 1913, where she worked as an actress. In 1921 she met Edward Weston who was starting a career as a fine art photographer after years of operating a portrait studio. The two fell in love and Modotti started making photographs. At her suggestion, the couple went to Mexico, where they lived from 1923-1926.

Modotti had a natural affinity for the medium, exhibiting the ample talent that would mark her as a major twentieth-century artist. She continually refined her photographic vision, and found work as a regular contributor to Toor's "Mexican Folkways" magazine.

This print, which is apparently unique, references Modotti's sophisticated use of the vernacular idiom, one inextricably linked with her populist political leanings. Although the image resembles a traditional still life and is of great formal beauty, it subtly plays against the genre. This "en plein air" study personal artifacts--the belted robe on its armature, an unusual example of Mexican folk art object, and the chipped (used) plate and pitcher placed on top of gently curling sheets of paper--is a scene of remarkable aesthetic plasticity demonstrating her masterful "new vision" innovations.