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Lot Essay
Exactly when Diane Arbus knew she would become an artist is unclear yet it is certain that from a young age she began to examine and study the world around her. Her high school art teacher recalled "'She liked working in creative situations where her hands controlled the result. Maybe that's why she ultimately shifted to the camera. She could capture the unguarded naked moment quicker on film than with a brush.'" (Bosworth, p. 32)
In the spring of 1935 she met Allan Arbus, a young copy boy in the art department at Russeks, her family's fur business. The two fell quickly in love and their romance continued through her high school years. In 1941, not long after her eighteenth birthday, they married. During the years of their courtship Diane grew away from making art and as a young bride she focused on her role as a wife. Also during these years she and Allan developed a very close relationship with Alex Eliot, a painter who Diane had befriended during a summer at Cummington School of the Arts in Massachusetts. The couple spent their honeymoon in Boston with Eliot and his new wife Anne.
World War II broke out and in 1943 Allan joined the Signal Corps. Eventually he was stationed at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey in the photography school. At night he would teach Diane what he had learned that day. Living in nearby Red Bank Diane would spend hours photographing while Allan was away during the day. In the spring of 1944 Allan was transferred to Astoria, Queens but later that year he was shipped off to Burma with a photographic unit.
Not long after Allan's departure Diane learned she was pregnant. Standing before a mirror she made a nude photograph of herself to send to him. Later she took another self-portrait standing clothed in the bathroom of her parents' Park Avenue apartment. "This haunting image (which Alex still has) reflects the dreamy, faraway quality she would later capture in almost all of her subjects' expressions." (Bosworth, p, 58.)
In November 1986, Sotheby's, New York offered a group of Diane and Allan Arbus prints from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Eliot, lots 295-299A.
In the spring of 1935 she met Allan Arbus, a young copy boy in the art department at Russeks, her family's fur business. The two fell quickly in love and their romance continued through her high school years. In 1941, not long after her eighteenth birthday, they married. During the years of their courtship Diane grew away from making art and as a young bride she focused on her role as a wife. Also during these years she and Allan developed a very close relationship with Alex Eliot, a painter who Diane had befriended during a summer at Cummington School of the Arts in Massachusetts. The couple spent their honeymoon in Boston with Eliot and his new wife Anne.
World War II broke out and in 1943 Allan joined the Signal Corps. Eventually he was stationed at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey in the photography school. At night he would teach Diane what he had learned that day. Living in nearby Red Bank Diane would spend hours photographing while Allan was away during the day. In the spring of 1944 Allan was transferred to Astoria, Queens but later that year he was shipped off to Burma with a photographic unit.
Not long after Allan's departure Diane learned she was pregnant. Standing before a mirror she made a nude photograph of herself to send to him. Later she took another self-portrait standing clothed in the bathroom of her parents' Park Avenue apartment. "This haunting image (which Alex still has) reflects the dreamy, faraway quality she would later capture in almost all of her subjects' expressions." (Bosworth, p, 58.)
In November 1986, Sotheby's, New York offered a group of Diane and Allan Arbus prints from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Eliot, lots 295-299A.