EDWARD WESTON (1886–1958)

'To the outer world I was a deserter, but I was not. If I had remained under conditions which could not have been, and never will be changed, I would have mentally poisoned all around me; destroyed them, my work, myself.' -- Edward Weston

Convinced of these words, a courageous Edward Weston left his California community and wider family for Mexico in 1923. With his thirteen-year-old son Chandler (1910-1995) on one side and his protégé Tina Modotti (1896-1942) on the other, Weston set out for new horizons, new aspirations and most importantly, a new aesthetic.

When Weston arrived in Mexico, he was creatively in transition. No longer was he interested in the romanticized soft focus of the Photo-Secession, but now the clear crisp inherent qualities of the camera enticed him; form and line were his muse. Weston’s Daybooks give insight into his daily endeavors to articulate his new visual language. In an October 21st, 1925 entry with the heading ‘Form Follows Function’, Weston described his arduous two-week project photographing his toilet. He marveled at the lines and shapes of this porcelain receptacle, pronouncing ‘here was every sensuous curve of the “human form divine.”’ Just one week after being immersed in the formal beauty and pristine contours, of this piece of hardware, Weston was compelled to engage a new curvaceous, divine subject: the confident scholar and journalist Anita Brenner (1905-1974).

The vintage print of Weston’s Anita [nude back], 51N, 1925 offered here, depicts one of fifteen poses captured on the day Anita Brenner entered into Weston’s studio November 11th. Still shaving and feeling uninspired, Weston attempted to put Anita off, but as a determined Brenner undressed, he recalled ‘and then appeared to me the most exquisite lines, forms, volumes...’ Instinctively reinterpreting the glassy voluptuous body of the toilet, Weston traced Brenner’s body with the lens of his Graflex, sensuously molding her outline, which he would print onto a dark enigmatic background. As clean and pure as porcelain, Brenner’s body sways slightly to one side; her arms and head tucked tightly to her body, leaving our eyes only to marvel at a smooth ambiguous form. Printed on a velvety paper that conveys great dimensionality, Brenner’s body appears almost tangible. Two days after Brenner’s sitting, Weston confessed that these images, ‘retain their importance as my finest set of nudes—that is in their approach to aesthetically stimulating form.’

Weston gave the print offered here to Brenner as a gift, making this a particularly special object. This is one of only two known prints of the image made immediately after the sitting and presented to the model. Early prints of the image are extremely rare; others are held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.