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Photograph: Portrait of Picasso

Photograph: Portrait of Picasso by RAY, MAN [MAN RAY]. PICASSO, PABLO

5 to 10 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $5.00
Details
$35,000.00
( US$)
Seller: The Manhattan Rare Book Company
Title
Photograph: Portrait of Picasso
Author
RAY, MAN [MAN RAY]. PICASSO, PABLO
Seller
The Manhattan Rare Book Company (United States)
Condition
Fine
Description
Paris: np, 1932. Fine. MAN RAY CAPTURES PICASSO'S ESSENCE IN LEGENDARY PORTRAIT. AN ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH WITH IMPORTANT PROVENANCE: From the famous Sotheby's sale of 1995 of items from the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray". The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel "Manny" Radnitzky (1890-1976) grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed creative abilities from a young age and studied to be a painter. He adopted "Man Ray" as his pseudonym and in 1915 formed the New York group of Dada artists with Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris was the destination for the international avant-garde, offering an exceptional number of galleries, art dealers, and wealthy patrons who promised artistic freedom. Man Ray sailed to the "City of Light" in 1921, joined Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles and became intimate associates with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and other leading artists. He pursued fashion and portrait photography creating a pantheon of the city's cultural life. "As a photographer, I was in demand," Ray explained to John Bainbridge, a writer at The New Yorker. "I was like a doctor. Everybody needed me." (Bolz) To be photographed by Man Ray meant you had made it in the Parisian art world.Ray often said that Old Masters, especially Hans Holbein the Younger, Rembrandt, and Vermeer inspired his portraits. "I... admired the respect with which they treated the proportions of human features," he wrote in an article published in Modern Photography magazine in November 1957. He also made considerable technological advancements in the field by creating "rayographs" (photographic images composed of ordinary objects placed on photo sensitive paper exposed to light) and developing solarization (the process of tone reversal observed in cases of extreme overexposure). "I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence," Ray said. (Schwarz, 10) Ray sought to create a sense of drama and mystery, believing that his photography could transcend the mechanical nature of a camera.When photographing his friends and colleagues Ray's emotional and psychological insights allowed him to expose the soul of each subject. One such subject and friend was Pablo Picasso. Man Ray and Picasso met in 1921 in Paris. They became friends through their connection to Surrealism, spending holidays together and collaborating on creative pursuits. In his autobiography, Man Ray described Picasso: "[He] gave me the impression of a man who was aware of all that was going on about him and in the world in general, a man who reacted violently to all impacts, but had only one outlet to express his feelings: painting." (Man Ray, 177) The intensity and awareness that Man Ray described is masterfully captured in his portraits of the painter.This photo we have on offer is from Man Ray's renowned series of Picasso portraits and coincided with the publication of the first volume of Picasso's catalogue raisonné, reflecting the critical position Picasso's work occupied in the French artistic establishment. In this almost sculptural photograph from 1932, Man Ray unusually presented Picasso in an open trench coat over his jacket and tie. Picasso's dark hair is slicked down and his smooth face looks directly into the camera. Ray used light on the outlines of Picasso's face to create a contemplative image that showed him as a dark and shadowy figure juxtaposed against the light background. Picasso's riveting gaze also conveys a reflective and sober mood. This print has the Man Ray stamps M28 and M30 on the reverse and was lot 348 from the sale of the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray" (Sotheby's March 22 and 23, 1995). Man Ray and Picasso remained close confidantes after this collaboration and during the summer of 1937, Man Ray filmed his friends, including Pablo Picasso, during a trip to the French Riviera. The result was On the French Riviera with Man Ray and Picasso, a documentary film which portrayed the friendship of Picasso and Ray at the center of a close-knit community of artists.German occupation led Ray to leave Paris for the United States in 1940. He lived and worked in New York and Los Angeles returning to Paris in 1951 and resuming his friendship with Picasso and other artists. Ray died in Paris in 1976 yet his creativity and innovative techniques, which demonstrate the distinctive cultural landscape of Paris during the interwar period, had a substantial influence on contemporary art. Contributing to magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar, he paved the way for Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz and other artistic photographers. Ray achieved international recognition for his photography, which he elevated to an art form. On May 14, 2022 Man Ray's Le Violon d'Ingres (1924) sold for $12.4 million, setting a new world record as the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.He was a masterful portraitist, renowned for capturing the essence of his subject's personality and mood. This collaboration between two of the most prolific, creative and eclectic artists of the twentieth century had truly spectacular results.Provenance: Sotheby's London, 22nd and 23rd March 1995 [Lot 348]: "Property of the Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray."Image/Print Size: 9 x 11 3/4 in. Elegantly framed with wooden frame under UV-protecting museum glass to an overall size of 20 ½ x 24 ½ inches.Paris: 1932; printed later. Silver print. With Man Ray stamps on reverse: M28 and M30 - 'Man Ray 31 bis, Rue Campagne Première Paris XIVe' and the copyright stamp ADAGP. Fine condition.References:Diane M. Bolz. "Visual Moment: Man Ray in Paris." Moment Magazine. Winter Issue 2022.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Man Ray." Encyclopedia Britannica. 14 Nov. 2022.Arthur Lubow. Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021. Man Ray. Photographs by Man Ray: 1920 Paris 1934. Hartford: James Thrall Soby, 1934. Man Ray. Self Portrait. London: Bloomsbury, 1988.Man Ray and Jean-Hubert Martin. Man Ray Photographs. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.Arturo Schwarz. Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. Slate Photo. "Man Ray's Portraits." Slate Magazine. February 6, 2013.Alden Whitman. "Man Ray is Dead in Paris at 86; Dadaist Painter and Photographer." The New York Times. November 19, 1976.
Presentation Photograph, Inscribed to Sarah Bernhardt

Presentation Photograph, Inscribed to Sarah Bernhardt by Hugo, Victor

1 to 10 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: FREE
Details
$15,000.00
( US$)
Seller: Biblioctopus
Title
Presentation Photograph, Inscribed to Sarah Bernhardt
Author
Hugo, Victor
Seller
Biblioctopus (United States)
Description
Paris: J.M. Lopez, 1872. Bust portrait of Victor Hugo (3 7/8” X 5 3/8”), mounted on its original card (6 1/4” X 8 3/8”). Inscribed, in black ink (trailing from the photograph down to the card), “A mademoiselle Sarah Bernhardt admiration et reconnaissance. Victor Hugo” (To Miss Sarah Bernhardt admiration and gratitude. Victor Hugo). The card is backed with contemporary framing craft paper and mounted to it is an image of Bernhardt’s study, showing this very photograph (a fillet on the former frame) hanging on the wall centered over her desk. Slight edge darkening and slighter spotting to the photograph, but very good, the inscription sharp and unfaded, the card to which it is mounted has some mat burn and a few spots of foxing, its edges cleanly cut, but the lower left corner was cut on a slight angle. A monumental association between (at the time) the most famous author and the most famous actress, and there are no 19th century comparables like this one, that are nearly as great as this one. Here is a précis of Bernhardt’s story. She was born in 1844 and attended her first play at 15 with her mother and 2 of her mother’s friends, Charles de Morny and Alexandre Dumas. She was so emotionally taken by it that she cried throughout. Dumas calmed her afterwards, spoke with her at length, and told her mother that Sarah’s intellect, and emotional wiring, destined her to be an actress, and a star. Morny, who was half–brother to Napoleon III, fixed her acceptance into the Paris Conservatory, Dumas coached her, and she made her professional debut at 18. A dozen other roles followed but she left Paris for Belgium, had a sultry romance with The Prince of Linge, then returned to Paris to have their child. In 1866 she signed with Théâtre de L’Odéon and in 1868 became the star Dumas had predicted, playing the lead role in the revival of his play Kean. She served as a nurse during the Franco–Prussian war (converting the Odéon into a hospital) and when the French 2nd empire was replaced by the 3rd republic, Victor Hugo returned to France from a 19–year political exile and met Bernhardt. Once the siege of Paris was over and the theaters reopened, Hugo’s play, Ruy Blas, was staged in Jan. 1872 to celebrate his homecoming. Bernhardt played the lead role as the Queen of Spain, and her fame, already prodigious, rose to the pinnacle with a triumphant performance. The bond between author and actress combined mutual respect and appreciation, a victorious professional relationship, unparalleled satisfaction for an adoring public, and a well–known, ongoing tryst, recounted with intimate details and frankness in the book My Erotic Life. Already the most renowned actress in France, Bernhardt toured England, Belgium, and Denmark with her own troupe in 1879 and 1880, then sailed to America, toured 51 cities, and returned to France with $194,000 in gold coin. Now the most famous actress in the Western world (the first superstar), she performed across the rest of Europe (except for Germany) then returned to Paris and shined there again. Other world tours followed, and she came home from one of them with 3 1/2 million francs. In 1893 she bought the Théâtre de la Renaissance where she performed and directed, sold it 1899 and leased a larger concert hall where she staged whatever struck her mood often playing male roles, and every time she wanted more money, she would do another tour. She injured her leg in a stunt leap on stage, had to have it amputated in 1915, weathered W. W. I., continued to perform, made a few films, and died in 1923, still the most acclaimed actress in the world. We have already said that she was the first superstar and so, she was, of course, the earliest born person awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses––and then there is Sarah Bernhardt.” –Mark Twain.
Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder)

Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder) by [Fine Binding - Philip Smith] Talbot Rice, Tamara

4 to 7 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $15.00
Details
$8,500.00
( US$)
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books
Title
Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder)
Author
[Fine Binding - Philip Smith] Talbot Rice, Tamara
Seller
Whitmore Rare Books (United States)
Condition
Fine
Description
London: Spring Books, 1963. First edition. Fine. Quarto (10 7/16 x 9 1/16 inches; 265 x 230 mm.). [iv], 40 pp. Monotone frontispiece, full-color title and 48 full-color plates on 24 leaves. The verso of the color title is inscribed in ink "To Joan/with many thanks/for your continuing/kindness.../Philip". Bound by Philip Smith in 1964 (stamped in blind on rear turn-in) in full rose (front) and medium blue (rear) crushed levant morocco. Both covers elaborately decorated with Russian Icons in various colored onlaid moroccos finished with elaborate gilt tooling. Smooth spine of half rose and half medium blue lettered in gilt. Wonderful hand-made 'iconesque' patse-downs, speckled ivory paper endleaves, all edges gilt. Housed in a later, specially made, black felt-lined, quarter rose cloth over blue cloth boards clamshell case, spine with white paper label printed in black. Together with a two-page autograph letter dated 13 July 1970, from Philip Smith to Joan Rix Tebbutt (1910-2005) the much loved artist, bookbinder, calligrapher and teacher who lived all her life in Glasgow. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with Sydney "Sandy" Morris Cockerell (Duval). The letter states: "What a pity I missed you when you went to see the exhibition at Hatchards... Miss [Elizabeth] Greenhill will be pleased that you like her bindings. I think she is very much like you in her approach to book binding... I did not sell any books at Hachards (not surprising as most people know I'm showing later in the year in London) & I have decided that possibly the one on Russian Icons would be the most acceptable to you so I hope you won't mind receiving this as a gift for your help to us!" A quite wonderful association. An elaborate binding fit for a regal subject: Here Smith has bound a book by Tamara Talbot Rice (1904-1993), a Russian-born English art historian who specialized in Byzantine and Central Asian art. After fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1917, her family settled in the United Kingdom; Talbot-Rice would complete her education at Oxford. Philip Smith (1928-2018) was a highly original and talented binder whose many innovations brought him acclaim. Selected for the Royal College of Art by the esteemed Roger Powell, he developed an abstract style that would use maril (compressed pieces of leather) with onlays and other techniques. Smith was a leader in the binding world-he published and edited and served as the president of Designer Bookbinders (1977-79)-he was eventually awarded an MBE for his lifelong contributions to the artform. Fine.
Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli

Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli by [Bossi, Luigi]

2 to 8 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $15.00
Details
$990.00
( US$)
Seller: De Simone Company, Booksellers
Title
Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli
Author
[Bossi, Luigi]
Seller
De Simone Company, Booksellers (United States)
Description
In Venezia: Lo Stampatore Carlo Palese, 1792. 8vo.  220 x 130 mm., [7 ¾ x 5 ¼ inches].  xvi, 285, [3] pp.  Illustrated with an engraved oval portrait and one head piece engraving designed by Francesco Mingardi and engraved by Francesco Novelli.  Bound in contemporary paste paper boards, paper label with title in ink on spine.  Boards are a bit soiled, but generally a very good copy. First biography of Gian Rinaldo Carli, the famous Italian scientist, economist and government minister who in 1781-83 published his famous book, Delle Lettere Americane.  Carli based his writing on an “immense knowledge which embraced the evidence of myths, traditions, customs, laws, languages, science, geography, and cosmography, . . .and made his work a comparative study of the peoples of the Old and New Worlds to prove his thesis of fundamental unity and resemblance.  All humanity is one since it derives from a common source. . .”.  He wrote this book as a challenge to the theory of Cornelius de Pauw who published his work Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, in Berlin in 1768-69.  Pauw conclusions stated that “the condition of the savage could be only one of misery, baseness and barbarism” and that “the climate of American was such that it induced a fatal degeneration in all subject forms of life, whether plant, animal, or human.” Carli’s book, sent to Benjamin Franklin by the bookseller Lorenzo Manini, arrived in Philadelphia in 1783.  It was immediately embraced by Franklin and American patriots and Carli’s conclusion that “the spirit of America” tempered by liberty and tolerance, would show Europeans the way to happiness as promised by the Enlightenment thinkers. Luigi Bossi, a noted antiquarian, historian, librarian, and member of the cultural elite in Milan, was a correspondent of Franklin and an ardent supporter of the unification movement that was being nurtured in Italy at the end of the 18th century.  He was a friend of Carli and saw in his work the way forward for himself and those who saw the future of mankind in a positive light.  As a member of the Italian enlightenment, Bossi was a lover of liberty who viewed the American Revolution against Great Britain as a signal for Italian nationalists to shake off the yoke of control exercised over the Italy by the French and Austrian occupation.  His biography of Carli was a testament to the life of singular Italian but symbolic of the potential of unifying the people who lived on the peninsula and creating an elected government working for the benefit of the Italian public. Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy, pp. 134-36. Wright Howes, U.S. Iana, C-149, P-142.  Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Americana, Dictionary of Books Relating to America. No. 6462.  Lucia Sebastiani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, v. 13, (1971). .
Carrie Chapman Catt Signed 1899 Receipt to Fellow Suffragette Harriet Taylor Upton

Carrie Chapman Catt Signed 1899 Receipt to Fellow Suffragette Harriet Taylor Upton by CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $3.50
Details
$375.00
( US$)
Seller: Seth Kaller, Inc.
Title
Carrie Chapman Catt Signed 1899 Receipt to Fellow Suffragette Harriet Taylor Upton
Author
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
Seller
Seth Kaller, Inc. (United States)
Condition
Fine
Description
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. Autograph Document Signed. Check. New York, N.Y., December 31, 1899. 1 p. "Received from Harriet Taylor Upton Eight & 75/100 Dollars balance on Indianapolis expenses… Carrie Chapman Catt" Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was a pivotal figure in the fight for woman suffrage. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which made the final push for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Condition Two short fold separations, mended.
After Piketty; The Agenda for Economics and Inequality

After Piketty; The Agenda for Economics and Inequality by Boushey, Heather; Delong, J. Bradford; Steinbaum, Marshall

2 to 8 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: FREE
Details
$25.00
( EU VAT US$0)
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, ABAA
Title
After Piketty; The Agenda for Economics and Inequality
Author
Boushey, Heather; Delong, J. Bradford; Steinbaum, Marshall
Seller
Carpetbagger Books, ABAA (United States)
ISBN
9780674504776
Condition
Near Fine
Description
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. Near Fine in a Fine jacket, unclipped ($35.00), faintly rubbed at the edges. Black cloth with orange ink lettering on the spine. Square and firmly bound, a few small stains at the bottom edge, clean internally. A collection of essays that comment on Piketty's ideas put forth in his best-selling work Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843.

Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843. by Turnbull, Archibald Douglas.

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $6.00
Details
$20.00
( EU VAT US$0)
Seller: Ten Pound Island Book Co.
Title
Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843.
Author
Turnbull, Archibald Douglas.
Seller
Ten Pound Island Book Co. (United States)
Condition
First edition.This is my hero, the elder Porter, identified on the dust jacket as
Description
New York: The Century Co., (1929). First edition.This is my hero, the elder Porter, identified on the dust jacket as "The Count Luckner of the War of 1812." A great yarn and an interesting life. Smith II 1948. Very good condition in dust jacket.. 21 cm. 326 pp.bw frontispiece and plates.

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