More than 250 rare photographs, including the rarest photo archives of the 19th and 21st centuries, have been announced for auction.

On December 2nd, the Litfond Auction House, together with the Béton Center of Visual Culture, will hold two auction sessions dedicated to the history of world and Russian photography.

Among the Russian photographers whose works will be presented in the catalog are Sergey Levitsky, William Carrick, Andrey Karelin, Maxim Dmitriev, Carl Bulla, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Vasily Sokornov, Arkady Shaykhet, Solomon Fridlyand, Nikolai Petrov, El Lisitsky, Alexander Grinberg, Solomon Tules, Abram Shterenberg, Evgeny Piotrkovsky, Emmanuil Evzerikhin, Max Alpert, Max Penson, Georgy Zelma, Naum Granovsky, and many others. Western photography is represented in the catalog by the works of Ernst Haas, Robert Capa, Leonard Freed, Elliott Erwitt, René Burri, Max Scheler, the photo duo Billy & Hells, Willy Ronis, Jean-François Jonvelle, Jan Saudek, and Karel Ludwig.

Among the top lots of the second half of the 19th century is a unique photo album with portrait photographs of members of the famous noble families of the Dolgorukovs, the Naryshkins, the Obolenskys, the Yusupovs, the Stroganovs, the Tolls, and the Palens, created in the photo studios of Sergei Levitsky, Karl Bergamasco, and Sherer, Nabgolts, and Co. in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the 1870s and 1880s. The album includes a total of 85 photographs (the starting bid is 600,000 rubles). Not inferior to it in rarity is the album of Russian types by William Carrick, published in the 1870s (the current bid is 500,000 rubles). Among the types presented are peasants, coachmen, merchants, clergymen, wanderers, and other well-known types of the Russian people.

Several photographs from the famous folk series by Jean Xavier Raoul, or, as he was called in Russia, Ivan Petrovich, are also interesting. For example, the photo «A group of Kuban Cossacks», included in the «Album of folk types of Russia» by J.X. Raoul (starting bid is 75,000 rubles). The photographer was known for his ethnographic works of the southern regions of Russia, in particular, the series included in the «Album of Folk Types of Russia», which was released in 1878. For this work, he received awards at the Paris Exhibition in 1875 and the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878.

The photo album «Views of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery», published in 1880 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, founded in 1380 by Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy on the site of the appearance of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (starting bid 70,000 rubles), is also unique. The photographs capture the appearance of several buildings that have not survived to this day: the Nikolsky Cathedral, the Bishop’s House, and the complex of the People’s School with the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The unique amateur photographs of the 1912 Borodino celebrations in the presence of the Tsar are also of great museum value. On July 25-26, 1912, 27 photographs were taken with a Kodak camera in Borodino (the leading bid is 200,000 rubles).

Among the photo lots of the early 20th century, there is a huge archive of the famous photographer Yevgeny Ottonovich Piotrkovsky, consisting of more than 500 photographs, autographs, letters, articles, and personal documents. His photographs were published in the magazine «Sovetskoe Foto», and he is also the author of the books «Eber and His Natural Method of Physical Education» (Moscow and Leningrad: Molodaya Gvardiya, 1924) and «Bromoil: The Bromo-Oil Process of Positive Printing» (Moscow and Leningrad: Ogonek, 1927).
In April-May 2024, Piotrkowski’s photographs were exhibited at the exhibition «Alphabet. Soviet Photography of the 1920s and 1930s» at the Béton Center of Visual Culture (Moscow), alongside the works of Alexander Rodchenko, Alexander Grinberg, and other masters of Soviet photography from the 1920s.

A significant number of lots is dedicated to the development of Soviet avant-garde theatre art. In particular, the exhibition will feature rare photographs of the set design of performances by the Moscow Chamber Theatre, which were designed by renowned avant-garde artists such as Aristarkh Lentulov and Georgy Yakulov.
The photographs from the Soviet period include numerous prints from the era of constructivism and Stalinist industrialization, capturing the vibrant atmosphere of the time and appearing in well-known magazines of the first third of the 20th century, such as «Sovetskoe Foto», «USSR in Conctruction», and many others.

Attention is drawn to the photographs of iconic authors. These include, for example, a photograph of Viktor Tsoi taken in 1985 at the ASSA gallery of artist Timur Novikov, which was located in the latter’s communal apartment at 24 Shpalernaya Street (the starting bid was 180,000 rubles). On the back, there is a stamp by photographer Edige Niyazov, who was a member of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia, and his signature in pencil.

The media partner of the auction is the magazine «Our Heritage». The new issue of the magazine, which will be published by the time of the auction, is dedicated to the history of Russian photography.
For more information about the lots and all the Litfund auctions, please visit the website www.litfund.ru.