Pictures From the Tyng Collection

6 photogravures tipped onto card mounts, tissue guards, lacking loose text leaf, publisher’s wrappers, gilt lettered with photogravure pasted on upper cover, edges a little chipped, folio (510 x 360mm.), Royal Geographic Society, 1931.

The opening image is Rudolf Koppitz’s famous “Bewegungsstudie (Study of Movement)”. The other five are “St. Malo” by Arthur Burgess; “A Russian Boy” by Alexander Leventon; “Mrs. Violet Gordon Woodhouse at the Harpsichord” by Herbert Lambert;, “Groote Kerke Veere” by John Anderson; “Muriel Evans” by Arthur Kales, of Los Angeles.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Koppitz studied, worked, and taught in Vienna for most of his career. He was a leading art photographer between the two World Wars, and a master of the photographic processes of his day. During Koppitz’s lifetime, “Bewegungsstudie” became his most famous image, and his studio produced gelatin silver prints and photogravures of it in a variety of formats. This dynamic and sensual composition captures dancers from the Vienna State Opera Ballet frozen mid-movement. Stylized, graceful, and mysterious, Bewegungsstudie has remained Koppitz’s best known work. This masterful print represents the ideal presentation of this timeless image.