Live Auction 14977Photographs Including Property from the Museum of Modern Art
ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)
Lot 107 Property from Sempervirens Fund Sold to Benefit Castle Rock State Park

ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)

Portfolio Four: What Majestic Word, In Memory of Russell Varian

Closed10 October 2017

Price Realised

USD 75,000

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ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)
Portfolio Four: What Majestic Word, In Memory of Russell Varian
San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1963. 15 gelatin silver prints, each mounted on board; each signed in ink (mount, recto); each credited, titled and numbered '234' in red ink on affixed Portfolio label (mount, verso); each image/sheet approximately 8 x 10 in. (20.4 x 25.5 cm.) or inverse; each mount 14 x 18 in. (35.5 x 45.7 cm.) or inverse; printed paper wrappers; plate list, text inserts, numbered '234' in red ink (colophon); number 234 from an edition of 260; contained in folio folding case with cloth ties.

Gifted by the artist to Dorothy Varian, Founding Director of Sempervirens Fund and widow of Russell Varian, to whom Portfolio Four is dedicated;
gifted to Varian Associates, San Carlos, California;
gifted to Sempervirens Fund, 1992.

Specialist note

Sempervirens Fund is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and permanently preserve coast redwood forests, wildlife habitat, watersheds, and other natural and scenic features of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, and to encourage public appreciation and enjoyment of that environment.

List of plates:

I. Teklanika River, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska

II. Sequoia Roots, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California

III. Leaf, Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska

IV. Dunes, Oceano, California

V. Cathedral Peak and Lake, Yosemite National Park, California

VI. Vernal Falls, Yosemite Valley, California

VII. Clearing Storm, Sonoma County Hills, California

VIII. Oak Tree, Sunset City, Sierra Foothills, California

IX: Castle Rock, Summit Road Above Saratoga, California

X. Northern California Coast Redwoods

XI. Orchard, Early Spring, Near Stanford University, California

XII. Siesta Lake, Yosemite National Park, California

XIII. Storm Surf, Timber Cove, California

XIV. Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California

XV. Sierra Nevada, Winter Evening from the Owens Valley, California