JANET LEHR INC Incorporated in 1972, After Four Years Spent Developing a Collection Of

JANET LEHR INC After four years spent traveling to dusty, closeted collections of photographs in American and European museums and estates, buying family archives and in general developing sources, for both 19th and 20th century American, European and Asian photographs, Janet Lehr Inc was officially born in 1972. During the pre-history of Janet Lehr Inc., between 1968 -1972, a great effort was made to interest her ‘fine art’ collectors, developed thru her Gallery 6M in New York City, during in the 1960’s, in photography. One after the other rolled their eyes at her idiocy. There were already significant holdings of photographs in prestigious American institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, George Eastman House and the National Gallery as well as in major European Museums and Libraries. However, none but the George Eastman House and Museum of Modern Art, had made a firm commitment to support the field with separate photography departments.

When in 1972 Janet Lehr Inc was incorporated, it was to Museum directors, curators and some art history scholars, buying for their own accounts that a clientele was developed.

During these years, when the collecting of photographs was a ‘new’ concept, she helped build the collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne Australia; National Gallery of New Zealand; the American 19th Century collection at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Cincinnati Museum of Art; Detroit Art Institute and to a lesser extent, the Getty Museum. The bonds of those early years continue and widen as curators and directors widen their circles.

Dubbed the connoisseur dealer by Ann Horten, Curator of Photography, Sotheby’s NY, in an interview published in Time Magazine, in the mid seventies, Lehr found and acquired great material, built public and private collections and encouraged museum exhibitions, all which define the activities of the gallery to this day. Prices for individual photographs have greatly. In 1975, a high auction price was $5,000, later in the decade it quintupled to $25,000. The best was not long in coming. Record breaking prices are set publically each year. The1993 season saw a single work auctioned for $440,000. Today, a single photograph has topped $3 million.

Janet Lehr Inc. has been able to provide a wealth of material for over 40 institutions and countless

1 private collections, and aided in creating numerous museum exhibitions in 4 decades. In 1986, interested in further broadening the collecting of photography, she became a partner in Vered Gallery, East Hampton NY, where she integrates the sale of painting, sculpture and photography in international collections world-wide.

Following, is a partial list of exhibitions and catalogues supported either in whole or large measure by Janet Lehr Inc.

Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc.

1974 Middle Eastern Photography. Metropolitan Museum of Art. March 1 - June 15. Works included Francis Frith mammoth plate photographs and their glass plate negatives.

1975 Era of Exploration. Metropolitan Museum of Art. May 21 - August 30. Works included mammoth plates by William Henry Jackson and Carleton E Watkins.

1978 Amerikanische Landschaftsphotographie: 1860-1978. Neuen Sammlung Munchen Loans included George Barker, George Barnard, William Bell, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Frank J Haynes, Eadweard Muybridge, Edward Weston and Carleton E Watkins.

1979 Photography Rediscovered: American Photographs 1900-1930. The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. September 19 - November 25 Works included Francis Bruguiere, Arnold Genthe, Charles Sheeler and Karl Struss.

1980 American Light-The Luminist Movement 1850 - 1875 . The National Gallery, Washington DC. February 7 - June 15 Works included Andrew J Russell, Senaca Ray Stoddard, and Louise Deshong Woodbridge.

Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc ( continued )

1982 Philadelphia Naturalistic Photography 1865 - 1906. Yale University Art Museum. February 10 - April 7

2 Loans included John Griscom Bullock, Robert S Redfield, and Louise Deshong Woodbridge

1983 Turn of the Century Photographs by Robert Demachy (1859 - 1936). Yale University Art Gallery. March 7 - May 1. Loan of 83 Gum bichromate, bromoil and bromoil transfer prints by Robert Demachy.

1986 Self Portraiture As Performance. Museum of Modern Art, NY. April / May. Loans included Mathew Brady, Thomas Eakins, Alexander Gardner, William Henry Jackson, Eadweard Muybridge, Lucas Samaras, Senaca Ray Stoddard, Karl Struss, Carleton E Watkins.

Staging Ones Self. National Portrait Gallery, London. October 3 - January 11. Loans included Thomas Eakins, John Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Gertrude Kasebier, Herbert Ponting, Napoleon Sarony, Senaca Ray Stoddard, Carleton E Watkins, Clarence White, and Louise Deshong Woodbridge.

1989 On The Art Of Fixing A Shadow. National Gallery, Washington DC. May 7 - July 30; Art Institute of Chicago September 16 - November 26; Los Angeles County Museum of Art December 21 - February 25. Loans included Alvin Langdon Coburn, Fredrick Holland Day, Thomas Eakins, John Beasely Greene, Francis Frith, William Henry Jackson and Andrew J Russell.

Photography Until Now. Museum of Modern Art, NY. Francis Frith glass plate negative, John Beasely Greene, William Henry Jackson, Eadweard Muybridge, and August Salzmann.

1990 Splendors of the American West - Thomas Moran's Art of the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.. Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham AL Loaned all the photographs used in the exhibition; William Henry Jackson, albumen prints of Yellowstone.

1991 Poetic Realities - American Landscape Photography. Columbus Museum of Fine Arts, Columbus Oh. January 5 - March 30.

Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc. ( continued )

Works included George Barnard, William Bell, Alvin Langdon Coburn, John K Hillers,

3 William Henry Jackson, Eadweard Muybridge, Robert S Redfield, Carleton E Watkins, Edward Weston, Minor White and Louise Deshong Woodbridge.

1992 La Menagerie du Palais. Musee Centre National De La Photographie, Palais du Tokyo Paris France. June 8 - September 16 Loans consisted of all the Horatio Ross stag pictures.

1993 Horatio Ross - 1850’s Scottish Photographer. Yale University, British Center For The Arts. September 11 - November 26. Works loaned consisted of 45 albumen prints from the only known Ross presentation album.

1994 MAGNUM OPUS. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. February 5 - April 14. The 112 works loaned comprise an entire History of Photography collection.

The American Landscape. Cleveland Museum of Art. January 14 - April 4 19th century western exploration photographs.

1995 Weegee. Brown University, Providence RI February 4 - March 12, 1995

1997 Man Ray’s/Man Ray Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College April 4 - June 8, 1997

Proposed exhibitions from the collection include: Roger Fenton, Crimean War Scenes John Thomson, Asian photographs 1868-1872 Alvin Langdon Coburn, Photographs and Watercolors Man Ray: The Experience of the Experiment Photosecession: Alice Boughton, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Robert Demachy, Clarence White, F. Holland Day William Henry Jackson: Photographer of the American West Felix Beato - 1860 Photographs of Japan Carleton E Watkins: The Duke of Manchester's Collection and other works. Minor White - The New Vision Ben Shahn: Ohio Years Timothy O'Sullivan: Photographs From The Wheeler Survey of the 50th Meridian Julia Margaret Cameron: Portrait and Fantasy Weegee The Famous

4 Publications by Janet Lehr Inc.

Catalogues: Series I Annual 1972 - 1976

Catalogues: Series II 1978 - 1986

1:1 John Thomson-Photographs of Asia and Street Life of London (complete). 84 illus/32 pp 1:2 Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs. 76 illus/32 pp 1:3 Portraits of Photographers. 48 illus/24 pp 1:4 Prehistory of Photography: Daguerrian Period; Photographically Illustrated Books; Albums; Books; Autographs; Manuscripts; also, Reference Material; Photographic Journals; Magazines; Photographic Ephemera. 11 illus/24 pp

2:1 Photographically Illustrated Books; Albums; Manuscripts; Ephemera. 29 illus/24 pp 2:2 Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Landscape Photography. 79 illus/40 pp 2:3 American Photography: 1914 - 1950. 78 illus/24 pp

3:1 Still Life, Sculpture, Genre, Nudes - Featuring Photographs of Objects by John Gruen. 32 illus/24 pp 3:2 Portraits - Featuring Photographs of Bodybuilders by Arthur F Gay. 55 illus/16 pp 3:3 Images of War. 26 illus/16pp 3:4 Landscapes - Featuring Photographs by Louise Deshong Woodbridge. 35 illus/32 pp

4:1 Twentieth Century American Landscapes - Featuring Rick Dingus. 39 illus/24 pp 4:2 Marine Views. 29 illus/16 pp 4:3 Architecture and Abstraction - Featuring Abstractions by Humphrey Spender. 45 illus/16 pp 4:4 The Figure in Photography. 32 illus/16 pp

5:1 Illustrations of Photographs From Several Recently Acquired Collections - Alexander Ingles, Scotland 1840's; Maxime Du Camp, Egypt 1849; John Lloyd, Wales 1850's; Frank Meadow Sutcliffe; Minor White 39 illus/24 pp 5:2 Naturalistic Photography: 1865 - 1917. 34 illus/ 16 pp

Publications by Janet Lehr Inc. ( continued )

5 5:3 William Henry Jackson - Picture Maker of the American West Photographs from the Frederick Candee Nims Collection (assembled pre-1880). 21 illus/24 pp 5:4 Beyond The Image: Present and Past. Photographs by Marilyn Bridges, Rick Dingus, Ben Shahn, Harold Edgerton, Arthur F Gay, Eadweard Muybridge (Motion). 67 illus/ 32 pp

6:1 Tim Gidal - Europe 1929- 1934; SHTETL 1932; Palestine 1935-1939; England 1939; India 1940. Text, 40 illus/ 32 pp 6:2 French Primitive Photography - 1850 through 1911. Photographs by Bisson Freres Blanquart- Evrard, Adolphe Braun, Robert Demachy, Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Disdere Durand Brager et Lassimonne, Godefroy, John Beasely Greene, Henri Le Secq, Charles Marville, Nadar, Jules Robucheron, Julien Vallou de Villeneuve. Text, 40 illus/ 32 pp 6:3 Alvin Langdon Coburn. Text, 30 illus/ 32 pp 6:4 Nineteenth Century American Photographs - Between the Sublime and Photosecession. Works by Louise Deshong Woodbridge, Edwin Hale Lincoln, Robert S Redfield. 29 illus/32 pp

7:1/2 Idylls of the King and other Poems. Photographically Illustrated by Julia Margaret Cameron. Text by Alfred LordTennyson, 25 illus/ 64 pp 7:3/4 Horatio Ross - Presentation Album to Justine Ross Foreward by Samuel Wagstaff, text by Donna Stein. 110 illus/ 64 pp

8:1 Twelve Contemporary Photographers - Audrey Flack, Denny Moers, Rick Dingus, Michael Lehr, Jill Freeman, Reed Estabrook, Marilyn Bridges, Anne Sager, Russell Munson, Marley Stone and others. 89 illus (49 full color)/ 24 pp 8:2 Masterworks by Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographers - JANET LEHR INC. for Vered Gallery. 36 illus/ 24 pp 8:3 Daguerreotypes. 36 illus/ 24 pp