Lot 32: RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004) Leaving America, September 13, 1952 Gelatin si

RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004) Leaving America, September 13, 1952 Gelatin silver print, flush-mounted on board, signed and dated in ink on the recto. image/flush-mount 10 7/8 x 13 3/4in (27.4 x 34.9cm)

Literature Avedon, Observations, Simon and Schuster, 1959, pp. 8-9; Thirty Years, Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Zürich, 2009, pl. 40 (this print) On the day before Charlie Chaplin left the United States for what turned out to be exile in Europe, he telephoned the photographer Richard Avedon. Not believing it was Chaplin, Mr. Avedon told the caller, This is President Roosevelt, and hung up. For months, Mr. Avedon had been writing to the actor asking for a sitting, drawing no response. But in his next call on that day in 1952, Mr. Chaplin was convincing, and a meeting was set. Mr. Avedon recalled that when Chaplin arrived at the studio, he told himself: This is Charlie Chaplin! There is a Charlie Chaplin! Mr. Avedon sent all his helpers out of the studio. The two worked alone. I was a wreck, he said. I did the pictures as simply as I could. Are you finished? Mr. Chaplin asked. I could do something for you. He bent down, concealing his face, and put a finger on eac h side of his head. He came up with a violently grotesque expression, then turned it into a smile... Mr. Avedon said, The sitter offered the photographer this gift that arrives once in a lifetime. John Durniak, New York Times, September 15, 1991 This was his last message to America RICHARD AVEDON PHOTOGRAPHY 39

Provenance Acquired directly from the photographer in 1970