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Lot 66
Edward Weston(1886-1958)Bertha Wardell, Glendale (Legs of a Dancer)
1 – 10 October 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkUS$40,000 - US$60,000
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Lucie Kessler
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Edward Weston (1886-1958)
Bertha Wardell, Glendale (Legs of a Dancer), 1927
Gelatin silver print; signed 'Edward Weston' in pencil on the image, mounted, a price label, annotated '2.00' in pencil, on the mount.
9 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (23.5 x 18.7 cm.)
mount 17 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (45.1 x 34.9 cm.)
Gelatin silver print; signed 'Edward Weston' in pencil on the image, mounted, a price label, annotated '2.00' in pencil, on the mount.
9 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (23.5 x 18.7 cm.)
mount 17 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (45.1 x 34.9 cm.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Acquired from the photographer by artist Tokio Ueyama (1889-1954) in 1927 or 1931
By descent to Suye Ueyama, wife of the above, in 1954
By descent to the brother of the above, in 1969
By descent to Irene Tsukada Simonian, daughter of the above and niece of Tokio Ueyama, in 2006
Literature
cf. Conger 536-543
Exhibited
Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan, Transbordering: Migration and Art Across Wakayama and the U.S.A., 30 September - 30 November 2023
Note
The artist Tokio Ueyama (1889-1954) acquired this remarkable photograph directly from one of Edward Weston's solo exhibitions held in Los Angeles in either 1927 or 1931. It has been treasured by the Ueyama family for nearly a century.
Ueyama, whose painting retrospective was recently on view at the Denver Art Museum, emigrated from Japan to the United States in 1908 and spent much of his life in Southern California until his death in 1954. He earned a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Southern California, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and subsequently explored Europe and Mexico on a Cresson Traveling Scholarship, during which time he developed a lifelong friendship with Diego Rivera. When Ueyama returned home to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, he co-founded Shaku-do-Sha, a multi-disciplinary art association that hosted events and installations, including Weston's 1927 solo exhibition.
Following up on the success of his first solo exhibition in L.A. in 1925, a second show was presented from 3 - 10 July 1927 at Shaku-do-Sha. On July 13 Weston noted in his Daybook: ". . . I am stimulated with many thoughts after the long considered Japanese exhibit which took place last week. Financially, it was the most successful showing I have had." (Part II, p. 29).
Another exhibition was mounted on 14 November 1931 in the Japanese Quarter in Los Angeles. Weston's Daybook entry for this date reads: "Today under Ramiel's direction I open in the Japanese quarter, Los Angeles. He sent me an S.O.S. for nudes." (Part II, p. 233).
While it remains unknown from which of these two exhibitions that Ueyama acquired this striking image of Bertha Wardell, a price sticker, annotated '2.00' in pencil, is adhered to its mount.