"The Week of Gérard Lévy’s Photos"

"L'Excellence d'un Regard II"
Auction: 16 June, 2017, 2:30pm

"Les Clins d’Œil de Gérard Lévy"
Auction: 13 June, 2017, 2:30pm

Expert:
Christophe Gœury
Tél : + 33 (0)6 16 02 64 91
chgoeury@gmail.com

Online catalog: www.millon.com
The catalog is available upon request from the Photography Department at the Millon Auction House

Live bidding: www.drouotlive.com

Private exhibition on appointment:
Millon Drouot
Photography Department
16 rue de la Grange Batelière - 75009 Paris

Public exhibitions:
SVV 3 rue Rossini – 75009 Paris

Les Clins d’Œil de Gérard Lévy:
Saturday June 10th, 11am to 7pm
Monday June 12th, 11am to 7pm
Tuesday June 13th, 11am to 12pm

L'Excellence d'un Regard II:
Wednesday June 14th, 11am to 7pm
Thursday June 15th, 11am to 7pm
Friday June 16th, 11am to 12pm

CONTACTS AND PRACTICAL INFORMATION
For all inquiries, to receive the catalog, for information about leaving absentee bids or receiving condition reports or to take an appointment please contact the Millon Auction House:

Natalia RACIBORSKI
MILLON
Photography Department
16 rue de la Grange Batelière - 75009 Paris
Tel : + 33 (0)7 88 09 91 86
photographie@millon.com

Following the great success of the first auction of Gérard Lévy’s photography collection last December 20th 2016, the expert Christophe Goeury with the Millon and Baron Ribeyre Auction Houses, are organizing "The Week of Gérard Lévy’s Photos", two auctions in June 2017 that will present another selection of the celebrated collection.

As was the case in the first auction, the second auction titled "L'Excellence d'un Regard II" will take place on June 16th and will once again present Gérard Lévy’s collection in four chapters:

Chapter 1: His primitives…
We begin with a selection of prints by esteemed primitive French photographers such as Henri Le Secq, Charles Marville, Félix Moulin, Edouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Charles Hippolyte Aubry, Adolphe Braun, Aimé Civiale and many more, as well as an ensemble of several daguerreotypes: a quarter plate daguerreotype by Louis-Noël Richou representing a couple seated at a table, with the man reading a letter, or of a half plate daguerreotype by Eduard Vaillat of a young boy playing dominoes. There is also an impressive ensemble of photographs and documents concerning the Prince Imperial, 16 prints: salt paper (1) and albumen paper prints of various formats of which two are photomontages, by Léopold Ernest & Pierre-Louis Mayer & Pierson, Édouard Delessert, Henri Tournier, Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg, estimated 6 000 / 8 000 €. (visual – lot 29)

Among the many distinguished works in this auction are three masterpieces by Nadar (Félix Tournachon, dit): The first is a salt paper print taken of his son Paul at a young age. On the back of this print we find a caricature that Nadar made of Paul, and a handwritten note from 1923 by Paul Nadar to his daughter Marthe, telling her that this portrait of her father was "beloved by her grandparents and framed and hung on a wall of the Nadar family home". The work is estimated 50 000 / 60 000 €. Another portrait is of Eugène Pelletan. The signed salt paper print taken in 1854 is estimated 18 000 / 20 000 €. Yet another exceptional work is a portrait of the mime Charles Debureau taken between 1854 and 1855 for the series called "Tête d’expression". This large format salt paper print is the only print known to this day in this format and in this framing. As Maria Morris Hambourg described in the catalog of the "Nadar" exhibition of 1994, in this unusual framing of the mime in ¾ view, this rare salt paper print transforms a study of expressions into a study of physiognomy. This work is estimated 60 000 / 80 000 €. (visuals –lot 30, lot 34)

This chapter ends on a selection of 11 works, stereoscopic photographs in direct vue on one plate or simultaneously animated photographs on one plate, by the French mathematician Eugène Estanave. Estimates between 300 to 2 000 € each. (visual – lot 97)

Chapter 2: His travelers…
Through this second auction of Gérard Lévy’s collection we will once again travel to the four corners of the world. We begin our travels with several half plate daguerreotypes by an unidentified photographer of views of Algeria, estimated between 3 000 and 6 000 € each, and continue with salt paper or albumen paper prints of North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Far East by Charles Lallemand & Ludovico Volfgang Hart, Félix Teynard, Maxime du Camp, Charles Clifford, Henry Sauvaire, Ernest Benecke, Pierre Tremaux, Aymard de Banville, Hector Horeau, J.X. or Ivan Raoult, Philipp Remelé, Auguste Salzmann, various estimations for each lot. Four lots each of four salt paper prints of Egyptian monuments and landscapes by John Beasley Greene will be presented, estimated 8 000 / 10 000 € per lot. An album by Felice Beato titled "Views of Japan 1871" of 54 albumen prints most uncolored and some delicately painted, of animated scenes and landscapes of his travels through Tokaido, Kamakura, Edo, Yokohama, Nagasaki. The album is estimated 8 000 / 10 000 €. The chapter ends with two large prints of magnificent views of Yosemite by Carleton E. Watkins, estimated 4 000 / 6 000 €, and Charles Leander Weed, estimated 8 000 / 10 000 €.

Chapter 3: His nudes…
This chapter begins with several stereoscopic daguerreotypes of female nudes. Along with the sensual daguerreotypes attributed to Félix Jacques Antoine Moulin or attributed to Louis Jules Duboscq-Soleil are several daguerreotypes by unidentified artists. A daguerreotype we have called "Cleopatra" stands out for its technical finesse and the theatricality of the model. The daguerreotype is estimated 4 000 / 6 000 €. There are also several studies of nudes by Laure Albin Guillot, estimated 1 000 / 2 000 € each, Gaudenzio Marconi, estimated 1 000 / 2 000 €, Louis Jean Baptiste Igout, three lots estimated from 400 to 2 000 €, Wilhelm von Gloeden, estimated 5 000 to 6 000 €, Vincenzo Galdi, two lots estimated 5 000 to 6 000 € each, and Guglielmo Plüschow estimated 3 000 to 4 000 €.

Chapter 4: His moderns…
With this last chapter, we explore Gérard Lévy’s predilection for surreal or abstract photographs. Excellent examples are Paul Edmund Hahn’s close up of a nose, estimated 1 000 / 1 500 €, a photomontage by Günter Hirschel-Prötsch, estimated 1 500 / 2 000 €, Jean Moral’s hanging linens, estimated 800 / 1 000 €, or André Kertesz’s "Conversations between chairs", estimated 1 000 / 1 500 €. There will be a few portraits by MAN RAY, estimated from 1 000 to 1 500 €, and several prints by Brassaï, estimated from 600 to 1 000 €.

The first auction, "Les Clins d’Œil de Gérard Lévy", will take place on June 13th and will represent a selection of over 500 lots in the spirit of the "Photographies Pour Tous" editions and biannual sales, that embrace the curious, the strange, and the original. It is with this auction that we discover all of the mischief and genius of Gérard Lévy’s gaze.

The auction is composed of: An impressive selection of carte-de-visite of various subjects and themes, from the most curious and bizarre, to photographer’s self-portraits, to celebrities, politicians, royal families, historical events, crimes and criminals, festivals and circuses, actors, French courtesans and dancers as well as portraits of types from around the world, estimates vary (visual – lot 96); Of over 50 albums of travels throughout the world, recounting stories of colonialism across the African continent, expeditions and encounters in the Middle East, as well as stays in Japan or Indonesia; Amateur photography is brought to the center stage with an album of an unidentified painter’s collection of photographs and studies of nudes, nature and landscapes and architecture, estimated 1 200 / 1 500€ (visual – lot 343), or an album of the journey of a war pilot experiencing the First World War in the skies of France and Morocco… and of images of Paris, the construction of the Eiffel Tower, several World Fairs and Exhibitions, train wrecks, studies of nature in the pictorialism style and much more. The auction will culminate with a surprising collection of nudes and erotica, estimates vary. (Visual lot – 454). As in all "Photographies Pour Tous", a selection of daguerreotypes and stereoscopes, as well as books, will be available.