Rare Edward Steichen Photograph of Rodin's Balzac Sculpture Headed to Auction with $1 Million Estimate

A rare photograph by Edward Steichen is set to be auctioned by Sotheby's with an estimated value reaching $1 million. The work, titled 'Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M.' from 1908, depicts Auguste Rodin's sculpture of French writer Honoré de Balzac. This print is believed to be one of only three surviving examples at this scale. It will be offered as part of Sotheby's sales featuring the Jill and Marshall Rose Collection, which concentrates on 20th-century modernist photography from America and Europe. The photograph has an unusual provenance: it was reportedly discovered at a yard sale near Lake George by someone attracted to its large wooden frame. After noticing a faint signature by Steichen, it was acquired by Jill and Marshall Rose in the 1980s for $53,400, which was then a record price for the artist. Edward Steichen was a pivotal American photographer who helped elevate photography to an accepted art form. His images of Rodin's Balzac sculpture are noted for transforming the solid figure into a shadowy, atmospheric presence. The photographic project began after Rodin invited Steichen to capture the sculpture to better communicate his artistic vision, as the original plaster version had been rejected by the Société des Gens de Lettres in 1898. Finding daylight too harsh on the plaster surface, Rodin moved the sculpture outdoors, where Steichen photographed it under moonlight over two nights in late summer 1908. Using exposures lasting up to an hour and adjusting his camera with the moon's movement, Steichen created the ethereal effect. Rodin later praised the images, stating they would make the world understand his Balzac. The photographs were first shown in 1909 at the Photo-Secession Gallery in what was Steichen's final exhibition with Alfred Stieglitz. Three of the images appeared in the publication Camera Work in 1911. With Steichen's negatives from this period lost during World War I, large-scale prints like this are exceptionally scarce. The other two known prints of this size are held by institutions. Steichen's market remains strong; in 2022, his photograph 'The Flatiron' sold for $11.8 million, becoming the second-most expensive photograph ever sold at that time.