Item #124363 The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection. Photography, Rudolf KOPPITZ.
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection
The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection

The Royal Photographic Society. Pictures from the Tyng Collection

London, The Royal Photographic Society, June 1931.

A large-format portfolio (510 × 363 mm), containing 6 tipped-in photogravures (each image size approximately 255 × 200 mm or the reverse), mounted on the recto of individual card leaves, each with a spiderweb-patterned tissue-guard; loosely inserted is the introduction and contents list, signed in facsimile by J. Dudley Johnston (320 × 220 mm, verso blank).

Overlapping textured card covers, the front panel lettered in gilt, with a small reproduction (115 × 150 mm, lightly rubbed) of one of the photogravures mounted in the centre; contents post-bound; the first tissue-guard is slightly chipped with minimal loss; a fine example.

The first photogravure is 'Bewegungs Studie (Study of Movement) by Prof. Rudolf Koppitz of Vienna', featuring dancers from the Vienna State Opera Ballet. Rudolf Koppitz (1884-1936), was born in the Czech Republic; he was a Photo-Secessionist, and 'one of the leading representatives of art photography in Vienna between the world wars' (Wikipedia). The descriptive note on the contents list is unequivocal: 'This striking composition was exhibited in 1927 and is generally admitted to be one of the outstanding achievements of all time'. Modern commentators tend not to disagree: the 'languid nude, elaborately robed women and undeniable sensuality, in the context of its rigorous and artistic composition, bring to mind the sexual morbidity of Viennese artists like Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha, as well as the Swiss symbolist painter Ferdinand Hodler and has made it as unforgettable then as it is today. It has become Koppitz's signature image' (Wikipedia). The other five photogravures are 'St Malo' by Arthur Burgess, Manchester; 'A Russian Boy' by Alexander Leventon, Rochester, USA; 'Mrs Violet Gordon Woodhouse at the Harpsichord' by Herbert Lambert, Bath (also reproduced on the front cover); 'Groote Kerke Veere' by John H. Anderson, London; and 'Muriel Evans' by Arthur F. Kales, Los Angeles. The short introduction explains the origin of the portfolio: 'The originals of the photogravures in this portfolio form part of the Tyng collection in the Permanent collection of photographic prints of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. In the year 1927 the late Stephen H. Tyng of New York, an ardent well-wisher of the Society and one deeply interested in pictorial photography, vested with the trustees a sum of money ... the annual interest on which was to be expended on the purchase of pictorial photographs of outstanding merit ... As the majority of members of the Society seldom have an opportunity to visit the Society's house and to inspect the photographic collections there, the Pictorial Group has undertaken the publication of the present portfolio, which is hoped may be the forerunner of others' (this appears to have been a forlorn hope). John Dudley Johnston (1868-1955), a British photo-pictorialist, was president of the Royal Photographic Society when this portfolio was published.

Item #124363

Price (AUD): $7,500.00

See all items in British Isles, Photography
See all items by ,