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MARJORIE CONTENT, (American, 1895-1984), FROM DOCTOR'S HOSPITAL, dated and signed "1933 / Marjori...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
MARJORIE CONTENT, (American, 1895-1984), FROM DOCTOR'S HOSPITAL, dated and signed  1933 / Marjori...
MARJORIE CONTENT
(American, 1895-1984)
FROM DOCTOR'S HOSPITAL
dated and signed "1933 / Marjorie Content" in pencil on verso
inscribed "Best print of this" in artist's hand in pencil on verso
gelatin silver print
611/16 x 49/16 in. (17 x 11.6 cm)
1933
ESTIMATE: $2,500-3,500
PROVENANCE
Vincent Vallarino, CONWAY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
EXHIBITED
WOODSTOCK, NEW YORK, Center for Photographs CORPORATE COLLECTIONS, April 26 - May 27, 1986
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, The Chrysler Museum, MARJORIE CONTENT, December 10, 1994 - March 5, 1995
GRENOBLE, FRANCE, MusTe de Grenoble, VUES D'ARCHITECTURES, May 26 - August 25, 2002
LITERATURE
Jill Quasha, MARJORIE CONTENT, NEW YORK, W.W. Norton & Co., 1994, p. 85 (illustrated)
Serge Lemoine & Ann de Mondenard, VUES D'ARCHITECTURES: PHOTOGRAPHIES DES XIXe ET XXE SI+CLES, Grenoble, France, MuseT de Grenoble, 2002, p. 86 (illustrated)
The genius of Marjorie Content has only been identified in the past 20 years. In 1994, enough research had been compiled for Jill Quasha to produce a monograph about Content's work. Although influenced by her friend, Alfred Stieglitz, Content's work contains unique qualities, including "calm, intimacy, delicacy, restraint, refinement, and simplicity. Moreover, Content's handling of her subjects seemed so much informed by simple, elemental emotions and responses - curiosity, wonder, love - that no matter how deeply her pictures were rooted in the style of their time, her lyrical voice and freshness of vision seemed undated, as if the work had been made today. The pictures were like small gems whose glow and perfect craftsmanship strike you long before you take stock of how, when, or in what style they were cut. Clearly here was an artist who had undeservedly slipped through the net of photographic history" (Quasha, "Introduction," MARJORIE CONTENT: PHOTOGRAPHS, New York, 1994, p. 9).
This photograph of tenement backyards was made from the window of Doctor's Hospital, where Content was visiting her friend Billy Whiting. One of only three existing prints, it is inscribed in pencil on the verso as, "Best print of this." The other two prints are cropped more tightly.