[BLINDNESS / PHOTOGRAPHY]. Deputy M. [Georges] Scapini [SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH]

1927. Very good. Original ferrotyped gelatin silver print (image size: 241 x 188 mm), signed in pencil and with the photographer's credit stamp on the reverse: "Photograph by Berenice Abbott / All Rights Reserved." Very slight curling, some very light superficial indentations visible only in raking light. Matte size: 500 x 400 mm. RARELY SEEN PARIS PORTRAIT BY BERENICE ABBOTT OF A BLIND FRENCH GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, SEATED AT HIS DESK ON WHICH APPEARS A BOOK WITH RAISED CHARACTERS FOR BLIND READERS. THIS IS ONE OF TWO PORTRAITS OF GEORGES SCAPINI BY ABBOTT, BOTH TAKEN AT THE SAME TIME, BUT IN TERMS OF COMPOSITION AND TECHNIQUE, OURS IS THE SUPERIOR PHOTOGRAPH. HOWEVER, WE HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO FIND ANY REPRODUCTION OF IT IN STANDARD BERENICE ABBOTT REFERENCE SOURCES. THE AUTHENTICITY OF OUR PHOTOGRAPH IS CONFIRMED BY ABBOTT'S SIGNATURE ON THE VERSO.

We have located a reproduction of the original un-cropped, un-retouched glass plate negative of this photograph (Larew fig. 6). Comparison between the unmodified negative and the present finished photograph shows how Abbott brilliantly repositioned the sitter so that the focus of the photograph is the monocle lens covering one of the sitter's blind eyes. Abbot reinforced the theme of blindness by completely blurring what was once a framed poster in the background. Consequently, the viewer is drawn into blurred world of the sitter, Georges Scapini.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER: "Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was a central figure in -- and important bridge between -- the photographic circles and cultural hubs of Paris and New York. In 1921, Abbott moved to Paris and became an assistant at the Man Ray Studio, where she would master photography. Her first solo photography show was at the Parisian gallery Le Sacre du Printemps (1926) and featured portraits of the avant-garde who resided in Paris at that time. After Atget's death, in 1927, she collaborated with Julien Levy, of New York's Julien Levy Gallery, to buy most of Atget's negatives and prints, bringing them back to New York upon her return in 1929." (SOURCE: MoMA Art and Artists, "Berenice Abbott, American, 1898-1991" online. Indeed, in 1970 MoMA hosted a career retrospective of Abbott's work). Besides her Paris portraits, Abbott is well known for her extraordinary photographic documentation of New York City, for which she has received international acclaim.

THE SITTER: Blinded in World War I, Scapini (1893-1976) became a noted French political figure who was later accused of collaborating with the Nazis. He was tried in abstentia and convicted but was acquitted (SOURCE: Ron Kurtz, Berenice Abbott: Paris Portraits, 1925-1930, pp. 293 and 295). Scapini's ambivalence in the present photograph reminds us of Abbott's several now iconic portraits of James Joyce.

REFERENCE: Elizabeth Larew, Not Just the Paris Portraits: Preserving Berenice Abbott's Glass Plate Negatives (Chicago: Columbia College, 2011, MA thesis).

PROVENANCE: Addison Thompson Photographs and Artifacts -- Toby Kilpatrick, New York / Seattle artist and photography collector.

CATALOGUER'S NOTE: We are grateful to Jon Evans and Rebekah Scoggins, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, for their reference to the Kurtz volume.