Frame size: 73.7 x 61.2 x 5 cm
It is one of Brancusi’s undisputed masterpieces and one of the most influential sculptures of the 20th century.
The sculpture was carved from a poplar tree around 1926. It was his 3rd column after a small (H.203cm) column carved in Oak in 1918, now in the Museum of Modern Art In New York and a another Oak column (H.406cm) carved C. 1925 in Paris, now in the reconstructed Brancusi studio in Paris. This 3rd column was the first to be placed outdoors.
In, “Brancusi a Study of the Sculpture” Sidney Geist writes
The twenty-three foot (556.6cm) column rises without effort and unobtrusively against the surrounding foliage. It appears as a repetition without monotony, diminishing perspectively, but ever present in the mind. Stiff where all is swaying, regular where all is varied, it is the shape of intelligence amid floral exuberance, a human gesture in a natural world.
When Steichen left the house he gave the column back to Brancusi and in the Autumn of 1927 Man Ray accompanied Brancusi to assist his friend with the dismantling of the column. Man Ray and Brancusi filmed the day and this photograph is a still taken from that film. In order to get the column back to and into his studio Brancusi cut the work in two.
This is the only photograph of the Steichen column that isolates the column against the sky and predicts the Tirgu Jiu column of 1938, now a Unesco World Heritage site.
There are 15 recorded prints made by the Artist, 9 in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, 1 in the Kunsthaus in Zurich and 5 in private collections.
Provenance
Michael Ilk, GermanyExhibitions
Brancusi, Galerie Hopkins Custot, Paris, March-April
2003, No.34 reproduced page 79
Constantin Brancusi Photographs, Michael Hue Williams,
London, June-August 2003, No. 50, reproduced in the catalogue
Brancusi The Photographs, Bruce Silverstein, New York,
April-June 2012, number 11, illustrated
Brancusi, Rosso, Man Ray, Framing Sculptur, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2014, Number 28d illustrated.
Constantin Brancusi, The Photographs, The Marguilies Collection,
Miami, October 2014-January 2015
Brancusi, Sublimation of Form, Brussels, Centre of Fine Arts, 2nd October 2019 - 12 January 2020 reproduced page 171 cat.178, another copy
Constantin Brancusi & Magdalene Odundo, Albion Barn Publishing, Oxford, England, 2020, reproduced Page 89
Brancusi Photographie, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, Switzerland, November 11, 2022 – February 2023
Brancusi, Romanian Sources and Universal Prospectives, Muzeul Național de Artă Timișoara, 30 September 2023 - 28th January 2024, Number 77, Reproduced in the catalogue page 120
Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Marais, Constantin Brancusi Photographs, 20 octobre-22 novembre 2025
Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Constantin Brancusi Photographs,
13th January – 21st March 2026
Literature
Cahiers D’Art, Paris, 1934, number 1-4, reproduced page 84
V.G. Paleolog, Brancusi, Bucharest, Ed. Forum, 1947
Jurgen Partenheimer,”Constantin Brancusi : Der Kunstler als Fotograf seiner Skulptur”, Kunsthaus Zurich, 1976, number 56 reproduced.
F.T.Bach, Constantin Brancusi. Metamorphosen. Plasticher.Form. Dumont, Cologne, 1987, illustrated page 167, 551F
Brancusi, Connaissance des Arts, HC, Paris, 1995, page 46.
Reproduced page 46
F.Bach, Brancusi, Photo Refexion, Editions Du Regard, Paris, 1991, illustrated page 13
1991
Friedrich Teja Bach, Margit Rowell and Ann Temkin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995, p.367, no.203; [édition française, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1995];
Erika Billeter, Brancusi Als Fotograf, Benteli Verlag, Bern, 1997, reproduced plate 36
La Collection L’Atelier Brancusi, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1997, illustrated pages 68 and 78
La Colonne sans fin, Les carnets de l’Atelier Brancusi, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1998, number 114, reproduced
On the back cover.
Radu Varia, Brancusi Photographe, Hopkins Custot, Paris, 2003, number 34 illustrated 551J
Vic Muniz, Brancusi photographs, Michael Hue Williams Fine Art, June-August 2003, London, number 39, illustrated ph551k
Paola Mola, Brancusi the White Work, Skira, Guggenheim Venice,
2005, No. 23 reproduced page 68
Quentin Bajac, Brancusi images Film sans film Photographie
(Cont.) Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2011, illustrated, PP 214-5 and front cover.
Constantin Brancusi and Richard Serra, A handbook of possibilities, Foundation Beyeler, Basle, 2011, reproduced
Pages 220-221
Doina Lemny, Brancusi Au-delà de toutes les Frontières,
Fage Editions, Lyon, 2012. Reproduced page 86
Brancusi, Rosso, Man Ray, Framing Sculptur, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2014, Number 28d illustrated page 157
Rodin, Moore, Brancusi, Through the Sculptor’s Lens, Waddington-Custot Gallery, London, 2015, number 26, illustrated
Paul B Franklin, Brancusi and Duchamp, The Art of Dialogue, Kasmin, New York, 2018, reproduced pages 50-51
Constantin Brancusi & Magdalene Odundo, Albion Barn Publishing, Oxford, England, 2020, reproduced Page89, 551J
Brancusi, L'Art ne fait que commencer, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2024, Illustrated Page 206 PH551 G
Brancusi, Art is just Beginning, Verlag Scheidegger & Speiss AG, Zurich, Reproduced page 214 Ph 551 G
Artizon Museum, Tokyo, Brancusi Carving the Essence, March – July 2024, number 69, illustrated page 120