Edward S. Curtis "Reindeer - Nunivak" 1930 Vintage Photogravure, Cardozo Collection

Details

Description

From the twentieth and final portfolio of The North American Indian — the 1930 Alaska installment that closed Curtis's thirty-year … Read more From the twentieth and final portfolio of The North American Indian — the 1930 Alaska installment that closed Curtis's thirty-year project — this large folio photogravure depicts a reindeer herd massed on the Bering Sea shore of Nunivak Island, a thicket of antlers against flat water and open sky, photographed during Curtis's last great field expedition.
That 1927 voyage is one of the storied chapters of the project: Curtis, his daughter Beth, and writer Stewart Eastwood chartered a small boat into the Bering Sea, working Nunivak, King Island, Little Diomede, and the Seward Peninsula through storms and near-disasters to finish the survey. Curtis wrote of Nunivak — home of the Nuniwarmiut, the Cup'ig-speaking people of the island — with an affection he showed few other places he photographed. The reindeer themselves carry their own history: introduced to Nunivak around 1920 under the federal reindeer program begun in the 1890s, the herd had become central to the island's economy by the time Curtis arrived, and this plate documents that moment of transition on the western Alaska coast.

As an object, the print is pure late Curtis: a quiet, atmospheric composition rendered in the fine continuous tone of hand-pulled photogravure, the herd resolving out of the sepia ground like a mirage. Volume and Portfolio XX appeared in 1930, into the teeth of the Depression, when subscriptions had dwindled to their lowest — material from this final installment is the scarcest of the entire publication.

This is a vintage impression from the original 1907–1930 publication, printed by the Suffolk Engraving Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts on warm ivory Japon vellum, one of the three papers used for original subscriber sets. Full margins with a crisp intaglio plate mark. This is not a 1970s-era restrike, which were printed on modern papers such as Arches and Rives BFK.

Provenance is as strong as single-owner provenance gets in the Curtis market: the Christopher G. Cardozo Collection. Cardozo (1948–2021) was the foremost Curtis collector, dealer, and scholar of his generation — author of Sacred Legacy and numerous standard references. This plate retains its Cardozo inventory number in pencil on the verso, along with the collection's cataloging label.

A scarce, evocative plate from the culminating chapter of the most ambitious photographic publication ever attempted. Ready to frame. See less