AMSTERDAM.- On Monday 11 November 2002 Sotheby’s Amsterdam will offer one of the most important collections of photographs in the Netherlands, the Bert Hartkamp Collection. The Amsterdam lawyer Bert Hartkamp died in March 1999 at the age of 82. Hartkamp’s dedication to photography happened almost by chance, when in the 1950s he was asked to be a director of the prominent Dutch photo agency Anefo. He decided to find out more about the history of photography and started to collect books on the subject. The next step was to find old photographs and examples of old techniques on fleamarkets and in antique book shops. At that time, photographs were not expensive and there were no limits to the collecting field. Hartkamp collected widely and enthusiastically. In a period of thirty years he brought together 60,000 photos and another 6,000 photo albums. Most of the works were 19th century, some were by famous names, others anonymous. In 1985 he sold his collection to the State of the Netherlands, which deposited the photographs at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Thus the collection became the basis of the collection of 19th century photographs of the Rijksmuseum.
Immediately after the sale of his first collection, Hartkamp started to compile a new one. This time, however, the collection would be subject to his personal taste and preferences. Bert Hartkamp was a lover of photographs, of beauty and of women. Not only is his collection rich in photographs of women: fascinating, sensual, strong, and dignified women, but contains many works by female photographers as well. It is this second Collection of photographs brought together by Bert Hartkamp that will now be offered at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam.
The collection includes several 19th century daguerreotypes, such as Moulin, a stereo daguerreotype and a whole plate daguerreotype of the Niagara Falls by Platt D. Babbitt. A saltprint from a calotype negative of Fruit sellers by William Henry Fox Talbot is estimated € 4,200-4,500.
André Kertész is represented with Distortion No. 6 from 1933. The photograph is signed and dated 1933 and dedicated To Bert Hartkamp 1978 Dec 31 A. Kertesz (€ 1,600–1,800),
With a borrowed camera the French photographer Brassaï made his first pictures in 1929. A year later he photographed the Parisian nightlife during long walks in this magic city. In 1932, he published the results in his famous book Paris de Nuit, which also shows an image of Madame Bijou, a Parisian prostitute in the Bar de la Lune in Montmartre. A signed silver print of Madame Bijou by Brassaï will be offered with an estimate of € 2,200-3,200.
Robert Doisneau is famous for his ´street photography´. With humour and melancholy he recorded life in the suburbs of Paris in innumerable snapshots. These photos are true icons of the French way of life. The most famous one is The Kiss in front of the Palace de l´Hotel de Ville, a picture that symbolises love for many people. As a ´street photographer´ Doisneau could be counted among Brassaï, Willy Ronis and Izis, whose works are also present in the collection. Together they had a group exhibition in 1951 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Fine examples of Doisneau street photography are Le Baiser de l´Hotel de Ville, a signed silver print (€ 2,600-3,200) and two signed silver prints from 1948 Le Nu dans la Vitrine and Un Regard Oblique (€ 3,600-4,500).
With the help of a stroboscope lamp, Harold E. Edgerton developed an interesting method to record fast movements. His works can be seen as milestones of high speed photography and Edgerton received many international awards for his achievements. One of his most famous photographs, Splash of Milk, shows the elegant, crown-like shape that appears when a drop of milk splashes on a shallow puddle of milk on a plate. A signed dye transfer print from 1957 of this Splash of Milk that was made in 1932 will probably fetch € 1,200-1,500.
Bill Brandt found his inspiration in experiments with a wide-angle camera. In the 1940s he started to photograph nudes that he remodelled in perspective, usually concentrating on a part of the female body. Brandt’s silver print Elbow dates from this period and was published in the book Perspectives of Nudes in 1961 (€ 2,700-3,200).
Irving Penn is represented with Nude 130 from 1949/50, signed in pencil and with copyright stamp on the reverse (€ 2,200–3,200). Andreas Feininger’s signed New York, downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge from 1940 is estimated € 2,700-3,200.
In the 1950s Ed van der Elsken stayed in Paris, where he photographed the famous Paris nightlife. This resulted in 1956 in the photobook “A love history in Saint Germain des Prés”. The portrait of Vali Meyers (left) that Van der Elsken made in this period, will feature the back cover of the sale catalogue. The silver print is signed and dated Paris 1954 in pencil (€1,400-1,800). Later, in the 1960’s, he travelled around the world, a period during which he made many social-critical images and documentaries. He also published photo albums on Amsterdam, Japan and China, series of which several pictures are also on offer in this sale.
The photographs by Gerard Fieret are first and foremost images of a personal experience. In his pictures, Fieret’s presence can be experienced both in front as behind the camera. An important part of his life takes place in his studio, and in his pictures this space features quite often as a décor. The drawings on the wall evoke a tension between reality and illusion. Two silver prints by Fieret from the 1960s are on offer, both signed and each measuring 50 by 40 cm (€ 600-800).
The Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado is a master in achieving balanced compositions. His work is part of a long tradition of engaged commentary photography. Despite the often gruesome subjects, his approach remains remarkably poetic. On offer is Salgado’s Ethiopia from1984, a silver print with the photographers stamp in the margin, signed, titled on the reverse (€ 650-860). Tentaciones in Casa de Antonio by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, a signed silver print from 1970 is dedicated to Bert Hartkamp (€ 1,400-1,800).
Jan Saudek was one of the first Czech photographers to gain notoriety in Western Europe. His works, in the beginning shot in black and white, later in coloured in, are about sexuality and the relations between men and women, old age and youth, clothing and nudity. The sale includes a silver print titled Marie from 1974, signed by the artist (€ 800-1,200).
The Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama was destined to become a Buddhist monk in his father’s temple. Nonetheless he chose photography as his profession. After a successful career in advertising, he began to work as an independent photographer and was proclaimed photographer of the year in Japan in 1970. Shinoyama is especially famous for his nude photographs, that break with conventions and express a particularly formal view of the body. Shinoyama saw nude photography as a to sculpture related moulding, which sometimes resulted in abstracted forms. His silver print Twin will feature the cover of the sale catalogue (€ 1,000-1,500).
Nan Goldin’s cibachrome print Nan after being battered is signed and numbered 7:25 (€ 4,500-5,500). The image is a manifesto to photography, a merciless and confronting allegory of the destruction of a love. It is one of the most gripping pictures from the series ´The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, a series about men, women and couples, that Goldin caught in snapshot images. It is a visual diary of her relationships with friends from New York’s underground art scene. Nan Goldin’s strength lies in the intense personal involvement with her subjects and in showing universal emotions such as happiness, pain, passion and desire.
Anton Corbijn is one of the world’s most famous photographers of the ’rich and famous’. He started his career as photographer for the Dutch pop-magazine Oor and from 1979 onwards worked for the English magazine New Musical Express. Other prominent magazines followed, such as Rolling Stone and Harper’s Bazaar. World famous are his photographs of U2, David Bowie and Miles Davis. Corbijn’s Portrait of Naomi Campbell (right) from 1993, a signed lithoprint, mounted on card, numbered 1/20 is estimated to fetch € 1,800-2,500.
The work of Inez van Lamsweerde is represented in many museums, among others in the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. In 1992 she was awarded the PANL Award and the Kodak European Price for fashion and portrait photography. Her Selfportrait silver print is signed and dated 1989 (€ 1,400-1,800).
Furthermore, the sale offers works by Man Ray, Horst P. Horst, Joel Peter Witkin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul Blanca, Machiel Botman, Irina Ionesco, Peter Ruting,Paul Caponigro, Imogen Cunningham, Elliott Erwitt, Erwin Blumenfeld and Edward Weston.
