AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF 1960'S PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE KENNEDY'S
purchased from the Neumeister auction sale of 12 December 2007 at 6pm, three retaining original lot labels.
comprising:
The Kennedy Women, Joan, Jean, Eunice Jackie and Ethel Kennedy 1960, gelatin photograph by Jack Lowe (American, 1930-2001). With old lot label to reverse, lot 12, with printed previous estimate 3000 - 9500 euros. 21cm x 15cm
The Election Victory, Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy on Election Night, 9 November 1960, vintage gelain silver print by Manfred Kreiner, old lot label for lot 118, with printed previous estimate 1200-1500 euros. 21cm x 15cm
The Fiances, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John F. Kennedy, 1953, gelatin silver by James Coyne, old lot label 100, with printed previous estimate 1100 - 1200 euros. 21cm x 15cm
A vintage colour photograph of Marilyn Monroe singing to troops, on Fujifilm Pictro Paper. 30.5cm x 22cm
Footnote:
All of the negatives of Jack Lowe's photographs were destroyed in the 911 attack on the World Trade Centre.
The full press release for the original auction is below:
PRESS RELEASE Special Auction Photography "The Kennedys" on December 12, 2007, 6 p.m. The Kennedys amid a Storm of Flashguns (Preview from November 28 to December 11 in our exhibition spaces at Gabelsbergerstrasse 17, 80333 Munich) NEUMEISTERS MODERNE is auctioning in an evening auction more than 550 photographs, most of which were taken in the family's private circle. No family in the public sphere moved the world in the 1950s and 1960s as much as the Kennedys, and their fascination still holds today. The popular clan embodied all the wishes and desires that filled the citizens of the time: glamorous, cosmopolitan, wealthy, casual, and yet purposeful and ambitious. Although he was not even three full years in office as president, John F. Kennedy is still one of the most famous personalities and politicians in American history. NEUMEISTERS MODERNE succeeded in obtaining a unique private collection for auction. More than 550 photographs, some are grouped in bundles, all are rarities, most are private views, and some are also exhibited at the Kennedy-Museum Berlin. The collection offers a broad spectrum of photographic quality from vintage prints produced with high-quality technique by way of clear press prints of great documentary value on to radio photographs, so-called wire photos, which are no longer found today. Numerous photographs that NEUMEISTERS MODERNE will auction are connected in a specific way to a tragic event that shaped America: all of the negatives of Jacques Lowe's Kennedy photographs - some 40,000 of them - were destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Our prints - numbering about twenty - are thus extremely rare, since they are vintages (the first prints produced by the photographer) and thus will no longer appear on the market in this form again. The detailed research of our expert, Ulrike Gramer, did not turn up publications of most of the early photographs of the Kennedys and hence they are worthy of particular consideration. "In addition, I consider the unity of the collection particularly remarkable: the photographs cover the greatest and most significant part of JFK's career path. Moreover, they include photographs of intimate moments from the life of John F. Kennedy. This collection is, of course, also an expression of the desirable media presence of a successful man and a document of marketing by means of photography," notes Gramer of the unique significance of the works offered in this auction.
The chronology of the collection reveals the evolution of the people photographed: Jackie develops from a diminutive equestrian to an unperturbed first lady, and JFK from a young, somewhat tense-seeming candidate for his first political office to a charismatic president. The viewer is also granted special insight through "clandestine" photographs of John F. Kennedy on crutches, which were prohibited from being published in his later years. His many ailments, including his back pain, were made taboo by his advisers, as they could have harmed the image of the radiant, invulnerable president. The Catalog A comprehensive auction catalog is being published; in keeping with its subject matter it is designed to resemble a magazine from the 1960s, Die Neue Illustrierte. Supplemented by original reports from Die Bunte Illustrierte of the time, the era of the glamour clan is revived. The catalog is divided into chapters: "The Kennedy Clan" has photographs of Ethel, Joan, Edward and other family members having breakfast, out for a ride, reading, or on the beach at Hyannis. The section "On the Path to Power" shows the young JFK launching his campaign in Boston for a seat in the House of Representatives, emotional meetings with supporters, close to the people such as visiting dockworkers in Boston or wading through the crowd prior to his election to the Senate, and later Kennedy overjoyed at the celebration of his victory in the election. The chapter "The Wedding" is dedicated entirely to the high society event of the century: the young Jacqueline Lee Bouvier became Jackie Kennedy and was soon idolized by an entire generation of women. The high tension of the atmosphere around the election campaign is palpable in the photographs of the chapter "The President"; later snapshots of state visits, such as one in Vienna, reflect the casualness and elegance of the glamorous pair. Other photographs show the children, John-John and Caroline in private, often provoking a smile in the viewer who is touched by the uninhibitedness of the models in the middle of the political stage. Numerous photos depict the life journey of the "goddess of the White House," as Die Bunte Illustrierte euphorically called Jacqueline Kennedy, from a child to the widow of the president. The final chapter of the NEUMEISTER catalog is accordingly called "The Last Road of a King," with photographs revealing the profound shock that affected the world after John F. Kennedy's assassination. All of the photographs are auctioned in frames (black wood, acid-free passe-partout, mounted on acid-free cardboard), for which 30 euros (including VAT) is added per photograph.
