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Lot 115

WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.
Photograph signed ("Walt Whitman"), a carte-de-viste photograph by Turney,.

11 December 2020, 10:00 EST
New York

US$4,000 - US$6,000

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WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.

Photograph signed ("Walt Whitman"), a carte-de-viste photograph by Turney,. 4 1/4 x 2 1/2 inch (105 x 50 mm) albumen photograph, mounted on card decorated with "Gurney, 17 Union Sq N.Y."

A FINE CARTE-DE-VISITE OF WALT WHITMAN, SIGNED. In many ways Whitman came of age with the camera in America, and because of his popularity the number of images of the poet proliferated. He once quipped, in response to photographs he had forgotten had been taken, "I meet new Walt Whitmans every day. There are a dozen of me afloat. I don't know which Walt Whitman I am."

Taken at Gurney's studio in 1871, this image of Whitman was a popular portrait. Whitman wrote in his notebooks that he visited "V.W. Horton at Gurney's" twice during that period. Years later, he remarked to Horace Traubel, "That picture seems to have been liked. I don't know but I like it myself. William [Douglas O'Connor] thought it 'a trifle weak,' but I don't think so. I can't always be a roaring lion!" An appealing Whitman image, rarely found signed.

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