Christie's New York is to hold an exciting sale of Photographs this month, including works by the world's preeminent photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Beard, and Irving Penn.
The suitably seasonal cover lot, a glamorously cheeky image by Penn, Dorian Leigh and Wizard of Oz star Ray Bolger for the Vogue cover, 1946 is personally inscribed by the artist to the model, reflecting their close professional relationship that developed through countless collaborations.
 Irving Penn's Dorian Leigh and Ray Bolger as Santa photo for Vogue |
Christie's are hoping to bring new buyers to the collecting category by offering a wide range of photographs with attractive estimates across an array of themes varying including portraits of artists such as Joan Miro, Max Ernst and Henri Matisse. Their double value for collectors makes them strong investments.
The auction also features photographs from the collections of The Reader's Digest Association, which includes works by Elliot Erwitt and Harry Callahan as well as The Baum Family Collection, the Chicago-based photograph pioneers, who collected many historically important vintage black and white photographs by artists such as André Kertész, Helen Levitt and Bill Brandt.
The 187-lot auction is expected to realise between $830,000 and $1.2 million. Highlights from Christie's New York December 2010 Photographs Sale will also include Irving Penn's captivating images of Juliet Auchincloss from 1949.
 Irving Penn photographs of Juliet Auchincloss |
Irving Penn approached the Auchincloss family to photograph their enchanting child Juliet, after seeing her likeness in a snapshot. Photographed in an austere white dress, the child's empty expression and haunting blue eyes have been reproduced in many publications, most significantly, in The Family of Man. The piece is estimated at $30,000-50,000.
The sale is not exclusively one of personal photographs. There is also an early landscape image by the now legendary Ansel Adams: Half-Dome, Merced River Winter, Yosemite, 1938.
This is a spectacular, reverential portrayal of the American West that Adams was so fond of. This vintage print features an exquisite balance of form, lights and darks and offers stupendous accuracy in the details. It is listed at $20,000-30,000 in Christie's sale which takes place on December 13.
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