More than 100 lots, over a century of photography and one clear winner: at Leica’s gallery in Vienna, a 1936 portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli by Horst P. Horst sold for nearly three times its estimate.
Leica is best known for the cameras that make photographs. On 9 October, its gallery in Vienna was about what a photograph can be worth decades after the shutter closed. At “Perspectives”, the photography auction held at Leica Gallery Vienna, more than 100 lots spanning over a century of photographic history came under the hammer. The top lot was a vintage print from 1936: Horst P. Horst’s portrait of the fashion icon Elsa Schiaparelli, which sold for 31,200 euros including the buyer’s premium.
A portrait that nearly tripled its estimate
The estimate for the Schiaparelli print stood at 8,000 to 12,000 euros. The final price came close to three times that and was the highest of the evening. Two names explain a good part of it. Horst P. Horst (1906 to 1999) photographed for Vogue and is remembered as a master of fashion photography, known for sculptural compositions and a timeless elegance; his pictures remain icons of fashion history. Working in Paris, close to designers, artists and editors, he was a central figure on the international fashion scene and photographed its leading names as well as artists and actors.
Elsa Schiaparelli belonged to that world. Next to Coco Chanel, she counts among the great avant-garde designers of fashion, a woman who used surrealist ideas, unconventional materials and bold colour to turn clothing into art. Her “Shocking Pink” is still the shade most people know her by.
Caroline Guschelbauer, Head of Photographs at Leitz Photographica Auction, sees the value in the meeting of the two. In this portrait, she says, Horst’s visual language meets the designer’s creativity: “This synergy results in an exceptional document of its time.” That, in her view, is what gives the photograph its particular weight for collectors. The interest reaches beyond the saleroom: earlier this year the Victoria and Albert Museum in London showed the exhibition “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art”.
The rest of the evening
The catalogue reached well beyond fashion. Works by Joel Meyerowitz, Nan Goldin and Stephen Shore were part of the sale. A photograph taken by Neil Armstrong, showing Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon, sold for 3,840 euros including the buyer’s premium. A picture by the Magnum photographer Sebastião Salgado, documenting the burning oil fields of Kuwait in 1991, made 5,400 euros including the buyer’s premium.
Why this belongs in Living
In The Study: A Room of Your Own we asked for one good picture, chosen by you. Vienna shows how wide that choice can be: an icon of fashion history at the top, and pictures by famous names at a fraction of its price. Two terms help before a first bid. A vintage print is one made around the time the photograph was taken, not a later edition. The buyer’s premium is the auction house’s commission on top of the hammer price, and every result quoted here already includes it.
What comes next
Lots that found no buyer on the night are still available in the post-auction sale, which runs until 31 October. After that, Leitz Photographica Auction turns back to its other field, historic cameras and vintage photographic equipment: Leitz Photographica Auction 49 takes place on 28 November at Leica Welt in Wetzlar, the town where Leica Camera AG has its headquarters.
