signed, titled, dated 1952 and numbered 10/25 on the reverse
19 × 15 in (48.3 × 38.1 cm) (image)
Auction Estimate:$4,000 - $6,000
Sale date:March 11 - 25, 2025
Price Realized
$6,600
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Estate of Robert Noakes
In this image, an unidentifiable nude male has his back turned to the camera, left arm behind him with his hand splayed open, and one leg up in front of him, cast in shadow. Horst’s focus on capturing the naked body, which began in the early 1950s and was first exhibited in Paris in 1953, stands out distinctly among the rest of the photographer's oeuvre. His use of Chiaroscuro in defining the highlights and contours of the body takes on a classical quality, sculptural in nature and emphasizes an idealization of the human figure. Horst’s figural studies were reprinted using the platinum-palladium process in the 1980s.
Horst P. Horst - Male Nude (Back Study), New York | Cowley Abbott