Bill Brandt
Campden Nude, 1952
Vintage Gelatin Silver Print
22.6 x 19.53 cms
8 14/16 x 7 11/16 ins
Series: 8. Perspective of Nudes
10270
Provenance
Private Collection, USALiterature
Michael Hiley, Bill Brandt:Nudes 1945-80, Gordon Fraser, London, 1980 (illustrated full page pl.19, reversed)Bill Brandt. Perspective of Nudes (with a preface by Lawrence Durrell and an introduction by Chapman Mortimer), 1961 (illustrated full page plate 35, reversed).
'Bill Brandt' stamped on print verso, and 'August 52.' written in ink on verso Brandt's nudes of the late 1940s tend to show the figure in a domestic setting. The...
'Bill Brandt' stamped on print verso, and 'August 52.' written in ink on verso
Brandt's nudes of the late 1940s tend to show the figure in a domestic setting. The use of a police camera led to distorted views that elongated the models limbs and allowed an extraordinary depth of field. Later nudes would abstract even further and remove all traces of the model's environment.
Two vintage prints of this work are known, each of which is extensively over-worked. The present work and a closely related one in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art. Both vintage prints have additions of watercolour and pencil, for example to extend the woman's eyebrows and make her lips fuller. However, the present work also has extensive pencil modifications to the mirror, to reintroduce lost aspects, and adds an outline to the woman's arm. Clearly it was difficult to print this work, as the few later, non-vintage prints lack much of the detail present in these two vintage prints.
Copyright The Bill Brandt Archive, London / Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York / Zürich. 2018
British Photography / The Hyman Collection
Brandt's nudes of the late 1940s tend to show the figure in a domestic setting. The use of a police camera led to distorted views that elongated the models limbs and allowed an extraordinary depth of field. Later nudes would abstract even further and remove all traces of the model's environment.
Two vintage prints of this work are known, each of which is extensively over-worked. The present work and a closely related one in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art. Both vintage prints have additions of watercolour and pencil, for example to extend the woman's eyebrows and make her lips fuller. However, the present work also has extensive pencil modifications to the mirror, to reintroduce lost aspects, and adds an outline to the woman's arm. Clearly it was difficult to print this work, as the few later, non-vintage prints lack much of the detail present in these two vintage prints.
Copyright The Bill Brandt Archive, London / Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York / Zürich. 2018
British Photography / The Hyman Collection