Lot 106: Richard Avedon (1923-2004)

Jacob Israel Avedon, Father of the Photographer, Sarasota, 12.19.72Gelatin silver print, flush-mounted on linen, signed in pencil, initialed, inscribed 'to...with gratitude', numbered '1/10' in ink, credit reproduction limitation, title, date and edition stamp on the flush-mount verso. 32 7/8 x 33in (83.5 x 83.7cm)sheet / flush-mount 34 x 34in (86.4 x 86.4cm); artist's original Plexiglas bolted frame construction

Provenance
Gift of the artistAvedon photographed the great and the beautiful over the course of his highly successful career. However, his series of portraits of his father Jacob Israel Avedon, made from 1967-1973 during the last years of his life, have a different, palpably personal quality. The portrait framework is classic Avedon - shot in a flat light against a white background showing the black border of the negative, but his usual ability to extract (or create) an emotional response from his subjects is replaced here by studies that resonate with his own, very personal connection to the sitter.These portraits were exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974 and later at Avedon's New Portraits show at the Marlborough Gallery in NY.While this print, a portrait of his father taken at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in December 19, 1972, was made at the same time as all the other prints from the Marlborough show, and like them was numbered '1/10', it did not form part of the final exhibition line-up.