PHOTOGRAPHY - GEORGE DAVISON

DAVISON (GEORGE) A group of 11 vintage photogravures, EACH SIGNED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER, [c.1890-1913, printed before 1919] (11)

Footnotes

Fine group of vintage photogravure prints by George Davison (1855-1930), an early champion of naturalism and pictorial photography, exemplified by "An Old Farmstead (1888), taken with a pinhole camera to produce a 'soft focus', [which] had won a prize at the PSGB exhibition of 1890. Retitled The Onion Field [as captioned in our image], it became his most famous photograph, and was fairly typical of his impressionist style" (ODNB). Davison was a founding member of the Linked Ring, published by Alfred Stieglitz in Camera Works, and having made a fortune through his early involvement with George Eastman and Kodak, was able to establish "an extraordinary centre for the arts" (ODNB) at his home, Wern Fawr, near Harlech in Wales.

Images comprise: "The Onion Field, Mersea Island", "The Saltings - Mersea Island" [with additional printed label "The Saltings. Christmas Greetings 1914"]; "Harlech Castle from Wern Fawr Music Room", "Harlech Castle", "Harlech from the Sand Hills [Golf Course]", "Harlech", "Towards Snowdonia", "Near Porthmadog" [with additional pencil note, "Christmas Greetings 1920], "Reflections - Esher", "The Haven, near Bournemouth", and "On La Chambolle - Aix les Bains" [Houses at Aix les Bains].

Provenance: Eugene Goossens (1893-1963) and his first wife, Dorothy Millar ("Boonie"), inscribed inside portfolio "To Eugene and Boonie, 18th November 1919 from J.V.G." The English composer and conductor Goossens was a close friend of Davison. He dedicated his Piano Quintet in G Minor (Op. 21) to him in 1921, and was a regular visitor to Davison's home at Wern Fawr, near Harlech (the setting for six of the photogravures in this portfolio); by family descent to the current vendor.