UNTITLED COMPOSITION WITH A CHILD AND TOYS

New York: Unpublished, 1925. Original photograph by the Australian-American photographer Anton Bruehl (1900-1982). A vintage (circa 1925) gelatin silver print mounted on cardstock. 7 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches. The photograph is unsigned, but the composition of the still-life photo clearly is Bruehl's. From the same collection we have a signed photo that matches the size, backing, and printing of this one. In 1919 the Australian born Bruehl, along with his brother and parents, emigrated to the United States, where he worked for Western Electric as an electrical engineer until an exhibition of Clarence H. White's photographs persuaded him to change professions. In 1924 he enrolled in White's photography school and by the next year was hired to teach in the school. In a 1976 article for Image magazine, landscape photographer Joe Deal observed that "Anton Bruehl's background in engineering and love of machine forms in combination with his training under Clarence White resulted in still life photographs which give the satisfaction of well-resolved formal problems and portraits choreographed with the rhythm and movement characteristic of the age." The early photograph offered here already displays the combination of formalism with inventiveness that was characteristic of Breuhl's later color photographs for Vogue and Vanity Fair. It is easy to imagine that photographs like this one were responsible for Ansel Adams' observation that Bruehl's work was "entirely contrived, and yet absolutely sincere." Bruehl's early black and white still-life photographs are much more scarce than his later color images, and they seldom come on the market. The photograph is clean and bright, with 3 crease lines that were probably made when the photo was affixed to the backing. The verso of the backing has some old glue stains.. First Edition. Single Sheet. Very Good+. Illus. by Anton Bruehl. 7 1/2" X 5 1/2". Photo.