August Sander - Karl und Ida Ermert, Herdorf - image-1

Lot 19 D

August Sander - Karl und Ida Ermert, Herdorf

Auction 1120 - overview Cologne
30.11.2018, 14:00 - Photography
Estimate: 4.000 € - 6.000 €
Result: 14.880 € (incl. premium)

August Sander

Karl und Ida Ermert, Herdorf
1907

Bromoil print. 57.8 x 40.3 cm (mat opening), 75.5 x 58 cm (dimensions of the frame). Signed and dated by Anna Sander in crayon lower right. - In original frame.

The shot of the married couple Karl and Ida Ermert dates back to the early years of August Sander's photographic career when he ran his 'Studio for Pictorial Photography' in Linz, Austria, and, as was customary among portrait photographers at the time, used various specific photographic processing techniques to satisfy his customers' desire for representative portraits. The photograph of the Ermerts could have been taken in 1906 in his home town of Herdorf, where he stayed on the occasion of his father's funeral. In this case, the date on the lower right of our picture would refer to the year of its realisation. The seemingly painterly effect, the large format and the clearly visible signature indicate that it was a typical work of art photography prevailing at that time. Only later did August Sander relinquish the practice of the elaborate photographic processing techniques in favour of genuinely photographic aesthetics and reproduced his prints exclusively on gelatin silver paper.
Only very few copies of August Sander's early prints created using this technique have been preserved, therefore, the rarity value of the work called here is quite considerable.

Provenance

From the photographer to the great-grandparents of the present owner