Edward S. Curtis, The Piki Maker - Walpi, 1906
Edward S. Curtis
1868 - 1952
The Piki Maker - Walpi, 1906
orotone (vintage goldtone on glass)
signed in the negative lower right: CURTIS
partial original studio legend label on verso, upper left: The Piki Maker
original backing paper, partially intact, with original Vash Gon promotional poster visible through backing paper at upper verso
set in an original Curtis Studios batwing frame
negative date: 1906
print date: ca. 1906
The Piki Maker depicts a Hopi woman preparing piki, the traditional thin bread made from finely ground blue corn. The image reflects Curtis’s interest in documenting everyday Indigenous lifeways as well as ceremonial subjects, presenting the preparation of food as an intimate expression of cultural continuity. Its quiet domestic setting and careful composition give the photograph both an ethnographic perspective and the refined pictorial quality characteristic of Curtis’s best work. This example in goldtone is very open and luminous with three dimensional qualities that are a hallmark of the orotone process.
9 5/8 x 7 5/8 in. (24.4 x 19.4 cm.), frame: 13 5/8 x 11 5/8 x 1 1/8 in. (34.6 x 29.5 x 2.9 cm.)
Private Collection, Colorado
Literature:
The North American Indian (1907-1930), Portfolio 12, pl. 432
Native Nations, Bulfinch Press publisher, 1993, p. 117
Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Simon & Schuster publisher, 2000, p. 86
Edward S. Curtis: The Women, Bulfinch Press, 2005, p. 9, 88
A hallmark of his studio, Curtis pioneered and popularized the rarely used goldtone process shortly after 1900, producing fewer than one print for every 500 negatives due to the costly and challenging nature of the process. Despite its rarity, it seems to have been his favorite medium, writing in his studio’s Goldtone Promotional Brochure:
“The ordinary photographic print, however good, lacks depth and transparency, or more strictly speaking, translucency. We all know how beautiful are the stones and pebbles in the limpid brook of the forest where the water absorbs the blue of the sky and the green of the foliage, yet when we take the same iridescent pebbles from the water and dry them they are dull and lifeless, so it is with the orthodox photographic print, but in the [goldtone] all the transparency is retained and they are as full of life and sparkle as an opal.”
Edward S. Curtis was an American photographer and ethnographer best known for his monumental project The North American Indian, a 20-volume, 20-portfolio publication documenting the lives, traditions, and material culture of Native peoples across the American West. Beginning in the late 19th century, Curtis traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada, producing thousands of photographs in photogravure, platinum, and other processes, often with a highly composed, pictorialist sensibility. His work remains one of the most ambitious and influential photographic records of Indigenous North America.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
Edward S. Curtis
1868 - 1952
The Piki Maker - Walpi, 1906
orotone (vintage goldtone on glass)
signed in the negative lower right: CURTIS
partial original studio legend label on verso, upper left: The Piki Maker
original backing paper, partially intact, with original Vash Gon promotional poster visible through backing paper at upper verso
set in an original Curtis Studios batwing frame
negative date: 1906
print date: ca. 1906
The Piki Maker depicts a Hopi woman preparing piki, the traditional thin bread made from finely ground blue corn. The image reflects Curtis’s interest in documenting everyday Indigenous lifeways as well as ceremonial subjects, presenting the preparation of food as an intimate expression of cultural continuity. Its quiet domestic setting and careful composition give the photograph both an ethnographic perspective and the refined pictorial quality characteristic of Curtis’s best work. This example in goldtone is very open and luminous with three dimensional qualities that are a hallmark of the orotone process.
9 5/8 x 7 5/8 in. (24.4 x 19.4 cm.), frame: 13 5/8 x 11 5/8 x 1 1/8 in. (34.6 x 29.5 x 2.9 cm.)
Private Collection, Colorado
Literature:
The North American Indian (1907-1930), Portfolio 12, pl. 432
Native Nations, Bulfinch Press publisher, 1993, p. 117
Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Simon & Schuster publisher, 2000, p. 86
Edward S. Curtis: The Women, Bulfinch Press, 2005, p. 9, 88
A hallmark of his studio, Curtis pioneered and popularized the rarely used goldtone process shortly after 1900, producing fewer than one print for every 500 negatives due to the costly and challenging nature of the process. Despite its rarity, it seems to have been his favorite medium, writing in his studio’s Goldtone Promotional Brochure:
“The ordinary photographic print, however good, lacks depth and transparency, or more strictly speaking, translucency. We all know how beautiful are the stones and pebbles in the limpid brook of the forest where the water absorbs the blue of the sky and the green of the foliage, yet when we take the same iridescent pebbles from the water and dry them they are dull and lifeless, so it is with the orthodox photographic print, but in the [goldtone] all the transparency is retained and they are as full of life and sparkle as an opal.”
Edward S. Curtis was an American photographer and ethnographer best known for his monumental project The North American Indian, a 20-volume, 20-portfolio publication documenting the lives, traditions, and material culture of Native peoples across the American West. Beginning in the late 19th century, Curtis traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada, producing thousands of photographs in photogravure, platinum, and other processes, often with a highly composed, pictorialist sensibility. His work remains one of the most ambitious and influential photographic records of Indigenous North America.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
