''The Pond—Moonlight'' (also exhibited as ''The Pond—Moonrise'') is a pictorialist

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

. The photograph was made in 1904 in

Mamaroneck, New York Mamaroneck ( ), is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 31,758 at the 2020 United States census over 29,156 at the 2 ...

, near the home of his friend art critic Charles Caffin. The photograph features a forest across a pond, with part of the Moon appearing over the horizon in a gap in the trees. ''The Pond—Moonlight'' is an early photograph created by manually applying light-sensitive gums, giving the final print more than one color. Only three known versions of ''The Pond—Moonlight'' are still in existence and, as a result of the hand-layering of the gums, each is unique. One version was given by Steichen to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

and remains in its collection under the title ''Moonrise, Mamaroneck, New York''. A second version was in the personal collection of

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

, which was donated to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in 1933. This had been reproduced in Stieglitz's photography journal '' Camera Work'', No. 14 (1906). The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a duplicate when it bought the

Gilman Paper Company collection The Gilman Paper Company collection is an archive of original photographic prints and negatives, and it was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The collection was formed over the course of two decades (roughly 1977–1997) by Howard Gilman ( ...

, and decided to auction it. In February 2006, this print of the photograph sold for US$2.9 million, at the time, the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction. The photograph was bought by gallerist Peter MacGill on behalf of a private buyer. This auction is presented in the part 6 of the BBC documentary ''The Genius of Photography''. The extraordinary sale price of the print is, in part, attributable to its one-of-a-kind character and to its rarity.

See also

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