Original glass plate interpositive prepared by Curtis for the printing of The North American Indian. Curtis, 1924

This is a splendid original glass plate made for Edward Curtis’s The North American Indian, the greatest photographic work on Native Americans. Curtis, one of the greatest American artists of his era, was the most celebrated photographer of North American Indians.

$35,000

Portrait of Walt Whitman holding a butterfly. Philadelphia, [early 1880s?]

A beloved Whitman photograph, framed with a large, bold signature of the poet.

$4,500

Portrait of Artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Mexico City, 1952, printed 2017

$3,500

Portrait of Albert Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey, 1950, printed 2017

In this portrait Sternberger shows Einstein dressed informally. Einstein was keenly aware of his public image, and often attempted to show a cheerful visage. The common backgrounds of the two men helped the photographer to put Einstein in a relaxed state and to capture him in a more vulnerable pose.

$1,250

Portrait of Indian Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. New York, 1949, printed 2017.

$2500 unframed; framed: $3,000

Portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Basis for the U.S. Dime. Washington, 1939, printed 2017

This photograph was the basis for FDR’s bust on the face of the American dime, first minted in 1946.

$900 unframed; framed: $1,300

Portrait of George Bernard Shaw. London, 1938, printed 2017

Shaw is pictured in three-quarter view with artful shadow play down the right side of his face. Sternberger was a ‘master of light and shadow’ according to contemporary museum directors.

$900 unframed; framed: $1,300

Portrait of Albert Einstein and Ilse Sternberger. Princeton, New Jersey, 1950, printed 2017

This photograph shows a reunion of friends. The Sternbergers and Einstein had known one another in Europe and met again in Princeton. Ilse was Sternberger’s wife, collaborator, and perennial foil. She was a constant source of warmth during sometimes-contentious sittings. She also helped document their life, publishing several articles on Sternberger’s work and their sessions with famous sitters after his death.

$2500 unframed; framed: $3,000

Portrait of Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. New York, 1949, printed 2017

Sternberger presents a careful composition in this portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru. The crisp white Khaddar cap and dark shadows offset each other. This photograph was used as Nehru’s official government portrait in India and could be found in every school, government office, and embassy worldwide. It continues to provide the cover for Nehru’s seminal Glimpses of World History, a collection of letters about the history of humankind written from prison.

$900 unframed; framed: $1,300

Portrait of Sigmund Freud. London, 1938, printed 2017

Sternberger and Freud had known each other for years before they fled Europe with the rise of Nazism. Though Freud was terminally ill and at first hesitant about receiving visitors in 1938, the neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis said it “makes me feel good to see old-familiar faces again” when Sternberger arrived. This is said to have been Freud’s last portrait session before his death in 1939.

$900 unframed; framed: $1,300