Erwin Blumenfeld
1937
Nude under Wet Silk, Paris

Gelatin silver print
11¥ x 9¢ins (29.8 x 24.1 cm)
 
Christie's - New York
Christies - NY (Sale 1983: Lot 0315 - Oct 18, 2007)
 
Copyright credit stamp (on the verso)
 
'The female body became the plaything of Blumenfeld's fantasies; he cut it up, elongated it, distorted it, underlining the abstract beauty of an isolated detail. He was obsessed with Woman, transforming her, at times, into an ageless inaccessible goddess, at other times into a sleeping beauty surprised by the voyeur while awaiting the prince charming who will wake her from her long sleep.
 
The 'platonic erotomaniac' placed Woman beyond Blumenfeld's reach. From the depth of his childhood memories he remembered his first love paroxysms when he discovered women painted by Cranach, 'their insolent beauty all the more naked for their transparent veils…there was born in me the desire to see through the transparency.' (Blumenfeld: My One Hundred Best Photographs, p. 25)
 
Erwin Blumenfeld, Folkwang Museum, Essen, 1975, pl. 26; Ewing/Schinz, Blumenfeld Photographs: A Passion for Beauty, Harry N. Abrams, 1996, pl. 61; Blumenfeld: My One Hundred Best Photographs, A. Zwemmer Ltd., 1981, pl. 133 (for a variant)
 
LL/23796