Lot Essay
The sitter in Epilogue is Margrethe Mather (1885?-1952), Edward Weston's student, assistant and then business partner from 1912 to 1923. During this period, Weston's oeuvre was influenced chiefly by Symbolist Art, Japanese prints and Pictorialist photography, as much of Los Angeles' bohemia was. Weston's photographs clearly reflected the Pictorialist mood - they relied on atmosphere, sentiment, stylized effects of lighting and pose and, as in the case of Epilogue, an enigmatic title for drama.
A clue to the title's intent may be found in another documented but unpublished photograph of Weston's. Ben Maddow in Fifty Years makes mention of two prints Weston sent to his beloved sister May sometime in the 1920s, Ramiel in the Attic and an image he refers to as The Prologue (op. cit., p. 32). With Epilogue, perhaps Weston was looking forward to the end of his Pictorial and commercial period, or to a diminished role for Mather in his life (they would not firmly go separate ways until Weston left for Mexico with Modotti in 1923). In addition, the composition takes on a more lyrical, if not sinister nature by a simple manipulation. Perhaps the essence of the picture can be more clearly seen if one covers Mather's elegant face, emerging from the deftly arranged shadows, to reveal the hunch-backed silhouette of an older, less sinuous woman.
There are only four prints of this image extant including the one offered here. This being the only print in private hands, the other three are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Smithsonian Institution and The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.
A clue to the title's intent may be found in another documented but unpublished photograph of Weston's. Ben Maddow in Fifty Years makes mention of two prints Weston sent to his beloved sister May sometime in the 1920s, Ramiel in the Attic and an image he refers to as The Prologue (op. cit., p. 32). With Epilogue, perhaps Weston was looking forward to the end of his Pictorial and commercial period, or to a diminished role for Mather in his life (they would not firmly go separate ways until Weston left for Mexico with Modotti in 1923). In addition, the composition takes on a more lyrical, if not sinister nature by a simple manipulation. Perhaps the essence of the picture can be more clearly seen if one covers Mather's elegant face, emerging from the deftly arranged shadows, to reveal the hunch-backed silhouette of an older, less sinuous woman.
There are only four prints of this image extant including the one offered here. This being the only print in private hands, the other three are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Smithsonian Institution and The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.