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PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR, SWITZERLAND
Erwin Blumenfeld is most famous, perhaps, for the elegantly original images he created for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in Paris and New York in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, as well as for such varied advertising clients as Helena Rubinstein, the Ford Motor Co., Van Cleef and Arpels and Dayton's Department Store in Minneapolis.
On arrival in Paris in 1936, Blumenfeld sought to follow in the footsteps of Baron Adolf de Meyer, who two decades earlier, at Condé Nast's recently acquired Vogue, had put fashion photography on the map as a creditable, lucrative profession - and one of considerable chic. Shots of uninspiring frocks, stiffly modeled on society women or lifeless mannequins were no longer the order of the day. Instead they became the product of consummate artistry, created by the most talented practitioners - Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, George Hoyningen-Huene and Horst. With Beaton as a champion, Blumenfeld soon joined their ranks at Vogue, producing his first spreads in the October 1938 issue.
Lot 235, Violettes de Montezin, appeared in Point de Vue de Vogue in February 1939. The image is quintessential Blumenfeld - a celebration of the enigma of feminine beauty. While the attractive model may be smiling straightforwardly at the camera, her face is veiled and therefore removed from any direct interaction with the spectator.
The veil persisted as a theme throughout Blumenfeld's career, although by the time he made his photograph of Evelyn Tripp (lot 236) some 25 years later, it has become a seemingly less elaborate, steelier confection. The image was one of a series by Blumenfeld created to promote Dayton's Oval Room designer boutique and was very unusual in advertising assignments where in-house art directors tended to dictate the creative process - foiling Blumenfeld's passion for darkroom experimentation. Dayton's, however, gave him carte-blanche to select the theme, garments, models and dècor. Blumenfeld also assumed responsibility for all layout and cropping decisions according to magazine format demands, including the placement of unusually small by-lines (store and designer names) onto the image. The resulting double-page spreads, laid horizontally, were powerfully unconventional.
Both photographs are extremely rare examples of Blumenfeld's fashion work and, typical of all Blumenfeld photographs, are unsigned.
That the Violettes de Montezin exists at all is miraculous. Blumenfeld had to flee for his life from Nazi-occupied France and was only able to retrieve some of the early photographs and negatives later.
Evelyn Tripp, here in an unusually large format, represents Blumenfeld, now settled in New York, at the height of his career. This work proved to be extremely influential on the next generation of fashion photographers. A young Irving Penn remarked on 'Blumenfeld's cleverness and graphic inventiveness', while William Klein's photographs - also of Evelyn Tripp - smoking through veils clearly owe a great debt to the older photographer.
ERWIN BLUMENFELD (1897-1969)
Violettes de Montezin for Point de Vue de Vogue, French Vogue, October 1938
Details
ERWIN BLUMENFELD (1897-1969)
Violettes de Montezin for Point de Vue de Vogue, French Vogue, October 1938
gelatin silver print
collection and Estate stamps (on the reverse of the flush-mount)
8¾ x 6½in. (22.1 x 16.4cm.)
Violettes de Montezin for Point de Vue de Vogue, French Vogue, October 1938
gelatin silver print
collection and Estate stamps (on the reverse of the flush-mount)
8¾ x 6½in. (22.1 x 16.4cm.)
Provenance
From the artist;
to the present owner
to the present owner
Literature
Ewing/Schinz, Blumenfeld Photographs: A Passion for Beauty, Harry N. Abrams, 1996, pl. 45