Photo and Manuscript New Year's Card by Arnold Genthe
“Harbour of Rhodes”.
Rhodes: [Photograph taken ca. 1930; printed c. 1932?].
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
Silver print, tipped to folding card, which is signed and captioned in pencil by Genthe. Inside the card, in ink, Genthe has penned, “Best wishes for a Happy New Year / from / Arnold Genthe / January 1st 1933”. 1 vols. 3 x 4 inches. Photo and Manuscript New Year's Card by Arnold Genthe. The card a trifle dust soiled, with small light stain in one corner; the photo fine. Beaton and Buckland, The Magic Image, p. 139.
Item #14874
A pleasing image, sailboats and figures at the right, landscape perspective to the left.
Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) was born in Germany and came to San Francisco in 1895 as tutor to the son of Baron Heinrich von Schroeder. Genthe, an entirely self-taught photographer, amused himself by taking pictures of the city's Chinatown, and when these were exhibited and attracted much favorable attention, he decided to remain in San Francisco, and, through his Schroeder contacts, became a successful professional photographer. In 1911 he moved to New York, and during his long career, followed his philosophy of portraiture: “I was determined to show people a new kind of photography: there would be no stilted poses; as a matter of fact, no poses at all. I would try to take my sitters unawares...portraying a person's character instead of a...photographic mask.” (Cited in “Arnold Genthe 1869-1942” by Jerry E. Patterson, a catalogue for an exhibition at the Staten Island (NY) Museum, 1975). A man of great culture and wide-ranging interests, Genthe became one of the greatest of American photographers, his work known around the world.
Genthe took this photograph of the harbor of Rhodes c. 1930 on a trip to Greece.
