Max Baur — Potsdam: Wie wir es liebten — 10 Signed Vintage Gelatin Silver Photographs — MFA Houston / Manfred Heiting Provenance

BAUR, MAX (1898–1988). Potsdam — wie wir es liebten. Photographs circa 1939; portfolio issued circa 1948.

A remarkable group of ten vintage gelatin silver photographs of Potsdam, each mounted to card and individually signed and titled by Max Baur in pencil, preserved in the original portfolio wrappers.

Of particular distinction is the exceptional provenance: formerly in the Manfred Heiting Collection and subsequently in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, acquired by the museum with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund.

The present portfolio was later deaccessioned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Max Baur and the Photography of Potsdam

Max Baur was one of the distinctive German architectural and landscape photographers of the interwar period. Working with the formal clarity and heightened attention to structure associated with German New Photography, Baur developed a particularly refined approach to architecture, landscape and still life.

His photographs of Potsdam are among the subjects most closely associated with his career.

Made before the widespread destruction suffered by Potsdam during the Second World War, these photographs preserve the city, its palaces, churches, gardens and architectural landscape as Baur encountered them before the war.

The title Potsdam — wie wir es liebten—“Potsdam, as we loved it”—acquired particular resonance when the photographs were gathered as a portfolio after the war. The series became both an architectural study and a visual record of a city whose historic fabric had been profoundly altered.

Ten Original Signed Photographs

The portfolio comprises ten gelatin silver prints, each mounted to card and signed and titled by Baur in pencil.

The photographs are intimate in scale but exceptionally precise in composition, demonstrating Baur's characteristic control of light, architectural geometry and atmosphere.

Largest image: approximately 7½ × 5½ in.
Mounts: approximately 10⅝ × 8⅝ in.
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver prints mounted to card
Signatures: Each signed and titled in pencil
Presentation: Original wrappers

Distinguished Provenance

The Manfred Heiting Collection

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, purchased with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund

Deaccessioned from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The provenance is especially significant. Manfred Heiting assembled one of the major private collections devoted to the history of photography and the photographic book, and material from his collection entered the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as an important component of its photography holdings.

Individual photographs from Baur's Potsdam series remain represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston collection.

Condition

Each photograph is mounted to card. Some surface dirt is present, with heavier surface dirt to the original wrappers. Overall the photographs remain in good condition, with wear commensurate with age and the portfolio's original format.

An unusually appealing opportunity to acquire a coherent suite of ten signed vintage photographs by Max Baur with direct museum and major-collection provenance, documenting prewar Potsdam through one of Germany's accomplished twentieth-century architectural photographers.