Preview Photo Auction

Egon Schiele as a boy wearing his Sunday best – the rare studio portrait is only one of many highlights of the 13th Photo Auction. About 280 lots will be auctioned at WestLicht on 20 November in what is one of the most extensive offers to date.

A core of the selection is formed by 115 lots from the provenance of Swiss collector and photography patron Kaspar M. Fleischmann. Among the many treasures of this collection are vintage prints by Berenice Abbott and Ansel Adams as well as Richard Avedon’s famous portrait of Charlie Chaplin sporting a devilish smile and holding his fingers to his head like horns.

The further selection is equally rich with celebrities: a 19 year old Kate Moss, portrayed by Albert Watson, Romy Schneider in New York 1962 photographed by Douglas Kirkland, Arnold Newman’s series of Marilyn Monroe in a tête-à-tête with writer Carl Sandburg at a Hollywood party, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Andy Warhol, Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot and many more.

With Robert Capa’s anti-war icon from the Spanish civil war one of the most famous – and most discussed – photographs ever comes under the hammer. Capa’s fellow Magnum colleagues are well represented, too: Henri Cartier-Bresson with two portraits of the late Henri Matisse, David Seymour with one of the last pictures he took before his death in the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Three nudes by Alfons Walde form part of the selection from Austrian history of photography. Another true rarity is a large format single print from Rudolf Schwarzkogler’s 3rd Action in May 1965.

The auction preview offers an intriguing tour through the history of photography and addresses both specialized collectors and the general public.