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Lot Essay
Prior to Edward Weston's departure for Mexico with Tina Modotti and his son Chandler in 1923, he supported himself and his family as a commercial portrait photographer, accepting commissions but barely accepting the fact of his career. Prior to 1923 he did consider himself a self proclaimed and described "artist", a trait he self-parodied later in his life in his Daybooks (Daybooks: Volume I, Mexico, p. xviii). There was, however, some truth to be had in this. As an artist he responsibly sought out competitions and entered them; he engaged in the business of exhibiting his work in galleries and whatever salons of the period he could enter, particularly in the "progressive" atmosphere of Southern California. Outside influences were felt strongly in the Pictorialist theater surrounding Los Angeles, and Weston was as susceptible as anyone in incorporating the allure of Japanese prints, Symbolism, and the Arts and Crafts movement into his picture making routine. From about 1916 to 1923 he had as a business partner Margrethe Mather, an accomplished photographer with a Pictorialist swirl to her works as well. A portrait by Weston of Mather from this period, Epilogue, from 1919, (see: Christie's, New York, 4 October 1994, lot 12) is edge-to-edge full of clues to these callings. With an Asian folding hand fan, the overlapping shadows of an Art Nouveau vase with long stemmed florals and the hidden silhouette of an old hag composed of Mather's unassuming outline, Weston seemingly turned his photography into an amalgam of art references.
When Weston met Modotti she was pursuing her career as an actress and was living with, and possibly married to, the poet, painter, graphic artist and textile designer who called himself Robaix de l'Abrie Richey (also known as Robo de Richey, ne Rudy Richey). Richey and Modotti lived the life of artists in a garret, seemingly given to an existence of bohemian elegance when in fact they were struggling financially and living with Richey's family (op. cit., Lowe, Tina Modotti Photographs, pp.15-18). It was through Richey that Modotti, in 1920, met Ricardo Gsmez Robelo, the subject of the portrait offered here, posed in front of a batik by Richey. Gmez Robelo was an exiled Mexican art critic, poet and later, the Director of Fine Arts for the Mexican Republic. Impressed with Robo's work, Robelo asked him to illustrate a collection of his Symbolist poems, Satiros y Amores that was to be published in Los Angeles that year (ibid. p. 18). It was Robelo that Richey was visiting in Mexico City when he contracted smallpox and died February 9, 1922.
Richey's death left Modotti devastated and her grief was reported in an article in the Los Angeles Record in May 1922 titled "Art, Love And Death, Widow Must Sell Batiks" by R. W. Borough. The sympathetic article paints Modotti as a true femme fatale, a reputation that stalked her for the rest of her life and beyond. "Tina Modotti's lustrous eyes lowered. There was a momentary quiver of the lids and a quick paroxysm of the throat." (op. cit.). Other than dramatically describing Modotti's widowed state, the quixotic title of Weston's portrait of Robelo is explained. "She pointed out the striking murals in the studio. There was among them a weird thing she called "The Witch." It was one of the black cats in the batik that Weston had used so effectively as detail in his study of Robelo, "Poesque." Poesque - the word demanded an explanation. "Robelo" Tina Modotti said in an aside, "regards Poe as the greatest American poet". He [Robelo] was the first to translate Poe into Spanish. Now as head of the Mexican government's fine arts department he is translating Carl Sandburg and Conrad Aiken for his people." (ibid.)
The earliest known reference of a Weston photograph with this title is in the catalogue to the Fifth International Photographic Salon of the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles, from 13 December 1921 to 2 January 1922. Weston had four photographs entered in that exhibition, Head of an Italian Girl; The Ascent of Attic Angles; The Breast; and Poe-esque (cat. no. 170). Although it isn't absolutely certain, due to the rarity of this image and the distinct title in Weston's hand, "Poe-esque", the print offered here may very well be the print exhibited.
Amy Conger reproduces only one portrait of Robelo (The Photographs of Edward Weston, fig. 59/1921), a "monumental portrait head", one of two others likely done at the same sitting as "Poe-esque".
Christie's gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Beth Gates-Warren, co-curator and author of the forthcoming exhibition and catalogue Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather: The Early Years for bringing to our attention the Los Angeles Record article. The Early Years is scheduled to open in the spring of 2001 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
When Weston met Modotti she was pursuing her career as an actress and was living with, and possibly married to, the poet, painter, graphic artist and textile designer who called himself Robaix de l'Abrie Richey (also known as Robo de Richey, ne Rudy Richey). Richey and Modotti lived the life of artists in a garret, seemingly given to an existence of bohemian elegance when in fact they were struggling financially and living with Richey's family (op. cit., Lowe, Tina Modotti Photographs, pp.15-18). It was through Richey that Modotti, in 1920, met Ricardo Gsmez Robelo, the subject of the portrait offered here, posed in front of a batik by Richey. Gmez Robelo was an exiled Mexican art critic, poet and later, the Director of Fine Arts for the Mexican Republic. Impressed with Robo's work, Robelo asked him to illustrate a collection of his Symbolist poems, Satiros y Amores that was to be published in Los Angeles that year (ibid. p. 18). It was Robelo that Richey was visiting in Mexico City when he contracted smallpox and died February 9, 1922.
Richey's death left Modotti devastated and her grief was reported in an article in the Los Angeles Record in May 1922 titled "Art, Love And Death, Widow Must Sell Batiks" by R. W. Borough. The sympathetic article paints Modotti as a true femme fatale, a reputation that stalked her for the rest of her life and beyond. "Tina Modotti's lustrous eyes lowered. There was a momentary quiver of the lids and a quick paroxysm of the throat." (op. cit.). Other than dramatically describing Modotti's widowed state, the quixotic title of Weston's portrait of Robelo is explained. "She pointed out the striking murals in the studio. There was among them a weird thing she called "The Witch." It was one of the black cats in the batik that Weston had used so effectively as detail in his study of Robelo, "Poesque." Poesque - the word demanded an explanation. "Robelo" Tina Modotti said in an aside, "regards Poe as the greatest American poet". He [Robelo] was the first to translate Poe into Spanish. Now as head of the Mexican government's fine arts department he is translating Carl Sandburg and Conrad Aiken for his people." (ibid.)
The earliest known reference of a Weston photograph with this title is in the catalogue to the Fifth International Photographic Salon of the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles, from 13 December 1921 to 2 January 1922. Weston had four photographs entered in that exhibition, Head of an Italian Girl; The Ascent of Attic Angles; The Breast; and Poe-esque (cat. no. 170). Although it isn't absolutely certain, due to the rarity of this image and the distinct title in Weston's hand, "Poe-esque", the print offered here may very well be the print exhibited.
Amy Conger reproduces only one portrait of Robelo (The Photographs of Edward Weston, fig. 59/1921), a "monumental portrait head", one of two others likely done at the same sitting as "Poe-esque".
Christie's gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Beth Gates-Warren, co-curator and author of the forthcoming exhibition and catalogue Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather: The Early Years for bringing to our attention the Los Angeles Record article. The Early Years is scheduled to open in the spring of 2001 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.