Photographs
Four to five cataloged auctions each year
Since 2008, the department has organized four to five auctions per year featuring historical, modern, and contemporary photographs, including one held in conjunction with Paris Photo, an international art fair held every November. It also organizes two to three auctions dedicated to photography books. From Gustave Le Gray to Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Cindy Sherman—spanning 180 years of photographic history—these auctions offer a comprehensive understanding of the medium and allow collectors to discover the vast diversity of works to enrich their collections. The department is now one of the leading players in the photography market in France.
A Word from the Expert
“One of the major trends in the market today is photography created by amateurs. Even though they aren’t associated with big-name artists, these photographs reveal genuine talent, a keen eye, and technical mastery that are captivating more and more collectors. These anonymous artists are now featured in dedicated galleries and are the focus of major exhibitions and events, notably at the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles. It is not uncommon to find these high-quality photographs in private collections, particularly in scholars’ libraries or cabinets of curiosities.”
Contacts
Mary Klein
mklein@ader-paris.fr
Experts:
Antoine Romand
Assisted by François Cam-Drouhin and Agathe Ouallet
Expert in photography books:
Bertrand Hosti
3 Rue Favart, 75002 Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 53 40 77 10
Successful Auctions
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob, known as) (1894-1954) Untitled [skull and glass], 1936. Vintage silver print. Image : 15,3 x 10,8 cm / Sheet : 16 x 11,5 cm - frame Provenance : - Former Claude Givaudan collection, Geneva. - Galerie Berggruen, Paris. Exhibitions : - Claude Cahun Photographe, 1894-1954, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - June 23-September 17, 1995. - Le Rêve d'une ville: Nantes et le Surréalisme, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes - December 17, 1994 - April 2, 1995. - Claude Cahun, Shiseido Art Space, Tokyo, April 7 - May 11, 1997. - L'Objet Surréaliste, IVAM, Valence, October - December 1997. - Robert Miller Gallery, New York, February - March 2000. - Surreale Dinge (Surreal Objects), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, February - May 2011. - Faces, Onassis Cultural Centre (OCC), Athens, April 2 - July 1, 2012. - Claude Cahun, les mises en scène d'objets, Galerie de France, Paris (Studiolo), March - April 2013. - The Muses of Montparnasse, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, July 15 - October 3, 2021. Bibliography : - François Leperlier, Claude Cahun, l'écart et la métamorphose, Paris, Éditions Jean-Michel Place, 1992. p. 164. - Claude Cahun Photographe, Paris, Jean-Michel Place - Paris Musées, 1995, p.149. - Claude Cahun Bilder, Münich, Schirmer/Mosel, 1997, p. 125. - Claude Cahun, Paris, Éditions Hazan, 2011, p. 141.
Result
51,200 EUR
Giuseppe Enrie (1886-1961) Holy Shroud of Turin, May 1931. Front and back (life-size negative). Two (2) vintage silver prints, from glass negatives, mounted on canvas with wooden bars attached at the top and bottom, preserved as rolls. Suspension systems with rings and strings on the top bars. Several stamps "Fotografie ufficiali - della S. Sindone - Da negativi originali - Cav. G. Enrie" on verso. 219 x 113.5 and 219 x 112 cm
Result
40,960 EUR
Jean Moral (1906-1999) Visage (photomontage), 1930. Vintage silver print, mounted on card, signed and dated in pencil lower right. Stamped "Jean Moral - 8 rue Blomet - Paris" and reference number on reverse. 28.5 x 23.7 cm Provenance : Brigitte Moral, daughter of Jean Moral.
Result
32,000 EUR
Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) Parrot Tulips, 1988. Vintage silver print (1988), mounted on cardboard, signed, dated and numbered in ink in the lower margin (3 copies). Photographer's stamp with signature, title, date and numbering in ink on verso of mount (3 copies). Image: 38.7 x 38.7 cm / Sheet: 50.3 x 40.3 cm Bibliography: - Robert Mapplethorpe, Flowers, New York, Bulfinch Press, 1986, p. 26 (variant). - Robert Mapplethorpe, Pistils, New York, Random House, 1996, p. 99. - Robert Mapplethorpe, Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers, New York, teNeues Publishing Group, 2006, pl. 176 (variant).
Result
28,800 EUR
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob, known as) (1894-1954 )Claude Cahun and Roger Roussot in Pierre Albert-Birot's Bluebeard, 1929. Vintage silver print. Image: 10,7x7,5cmSheet : 12x9cm - frame Provenance: Former Claude Givaudan collection, Paris-Geneva. Exhibition: - Le Rêve d'une ville: Nantes et le Surréalisme, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, December 17, 1994 - April 2, 1995. - Claude Cahun 1894-1954, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, June 23 - September 17, 1995. - Robert Miller Gallery, New York, February - March 2000 . - Sabine Knust, Munich, December 2000 - January 2001 - Die andere Seite des Mondes, Kunst Sammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf, October 2011 - January 2012 - Women of the Avant-Garde, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaeck, February - May 2012 - The other side of the moon. Women artists of the avant-garde, K20, Düsseldorf, 22 October 2011 - 15 January 2012. Bibliography: - François Leperlier, Claude Cahun, l'écart et la métamorphose, Paris, Jean-Michel Place, 1992, p. 98 . - Claude Cahun. Photography, Paris, Jean-Michel Place, 1995, p. 161 - Dirk Snauwaert et alii, Claude Cahun Bilder, München, Schirmer-Mosel, 1997, p. 137 .
Result
70,400 EUR
Louis-Émile Durandelle (1839-1917) - Albert Chevojon (1865-1925 )Construction of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre. Paris, 1877-1901. limestone extraction (Château-Landon stone) in a quarry in Souppes-sur-Loing . Quarrymen cutting the limestone. Transporting the stones. General view of the Montmartre hill. First and second steam winches installed on the south side of the hill. Square place Saint-Pierre. Excavation work. Railroad designed for the evacuation of materials after the excavation. Construction of the basements under the apse. Wooden structures under the ambulatory. Scaffolding of the apse. Double arch of the Saint-Pierre chapel. Henri Rauline, inspector of the works on the site. Plans of the different stages and elevations. Sides of the crypt. Double scaffolding of the upper church. Erection of the walls of the upper church between the double scaffolding. Construction of the vault of an apse chapel. General view of the site from the guards' barracks with the master builders and workers, soldiers and a knife sharpener. Perspective on the site of the Sacré-Cœur in the axis of the rue de la Chaussée d'Antin from the boulevard des Italiens. Pinnacles and turrets. Pendant of the central dome. Group composed of Monseigneur François Richard, the architects Henri Rauline and Charles Laisné, the painter Hubert Rohault de Fleury, Father François Voirin and the National Vow Committee. View of the Sacred Heart from the roof of the National Assembly. Ornamental sculptures. Testing the visual effect of a gargoyle with a plaster model. Group of quarrymen with Louis-Émile Durandelle. Lifting tower erected on Lamarck Street. Intersection of rue Lamarck, rue de la Bonne and rue Becquerel. Solemn inauguration of the basilica (June 1891). Tent to welcome the pilgrims, shelter Saint-Joseph, rue du Chevalier de la Barre. Lanterns. Erection of the dome. Scaffolding of the main façade. View of the Montmartre hillock from the place d'Anvers. Three (3) oblong folio albums with cardboard covers, titled on the first plates, composed respectively of 127, 102 and 102 albumen prints, from collodion glass negatives, mounted on sheets. Stamps "Photo Chevojon - 9 rue Cadet - Paris" on the covers. Numerous dates on the mounts, in the negatives or on the back of the prints. Some annotations and technical indications on the mounts. Stamped numbering on a part of the prints. Sizes: from 22x28 to 34x43cm
Result
53,760 EUR
Paul Nadar (1856-1939) - Dmitri Ivanovitch Ermakov (1846-1916) - Abdullah Brothers and othersTravel of Edmond and Marie Ternynck on board the Transcaspian, October-November 1890. Turkey. Constantinople. Sainte Sophie. Palace of Cheraghan. Dardanelles. Bosphorus. Dolmabahçe Palace. Mosque of Yéni-Djami. Mosque of Sultan Ahmed. Trebizond. Turkestan. Samarkand. Bibi-Khanym Mosque and horse market. Medersa Chir Dar. Medersa Tilla Khari. Registan square, dervish storyteller. Prayer of the faithful in the Ulugh Beg medersa. Chah-e-Zindeh complex. Mausoleum of Touman-Aka. Reception offered by the general Annenkoff. The bey of Tchardjoui (Türkmenabat). Horse of the bey. Prince Gagarin in conversation with a Russian officer. Agent of the railway company in front of one of the office wagons. Medersa Cher-Dor. Tomb of Tamerlane. Square of the big market. Tiflis. Goat race or bozkachi. Ashgabat. Merv. Military review with general Annenkoff. Baku station, terminus of the Transcaucasian Railway. Uzunada station, head of the line. Gökdepe. Tekkés selling carpets to travelers. Ruins of the ancient city. Bairam Ali Mosque. Colonel of the Cossacks. Karakul. Bukhara. Entrance of the emir's palace. Tashkent. Russia. Moscow. Tsar Kolokol bell. Red Square. Two albums in-plano and in-folio in burgundy percaline composed respectively of 41 and 69 prints on albumen paper, pasted on cardboards. Some credits of photographers in the negatives and legends in headbands. Numerous handwritten captions on the mounts. Handwritten account of the trip by Edmond Ternynck in a notebook in-8, 62 pages. Size: from 11x16 to 28x39cm
Result
52,480 EUR
William Klein (1926-2022) Gun 1. New York, 1954. Silver print (2001), enhanced with red and black enamel paint, mounted on panel. Photographer's signature, title, date of shooting and date of painting on verso of mount. 60 x 50 cm
Result
36,400 EUR