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Artworks
Bill Brandt
Nude, Campden Hill, London, 1949Vintage Gelatin Silver Print23.1 x 17.1 cms 9 1/16 x 6 11/16 insSeries: 8. Perspective of Nudes10929Provenance
The Estate of Bill Brandt
Edwynn Houk Gallery, New YorkExhibitions
Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 6 March - 12 August 2013.
Literature
Sarah Hermanson Meister, Bill Brandt: Shadow & Light, (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2013), (illustrated p.25)
Brandt Nudes. A New Perspective (with a commentary by Mark Haworth-Booth), 2004 (illustrated full page p.34)
Bill Jay and Nigel Warburton, Brandt: The Photography of Bill Brandt, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1999 (illustrated full page p.250)
Michael Hiley, Bill Brandt:Nudes 1945-80, Gordon Fraser, London, 1980 (illustrated full page pl.12)
Stamped BILL BRANDT on the reverse. 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...Stamped BILL BRANDT on the reverse.
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 absdtract even further and remove all traces of the model's environment.
This rare vintage photograph has very different qualities from blacker and more contrasty later prints. Here the light is soft and the lightness of the model's face draws the viewer towards it. Genre details arre used to situate the form, not simply to create spatial drama and the soft light draws attention to the woman's skin. In contrast the later prints of this image are printed with heavy blacks which lose genre details but provide a more overt drama.
Another print of this work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Copyright The Bill Brandt Archive, London / Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York / Zürich. 2018
British Photography / The Hyman Collection
