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her death in 1975, Madame Yevonde left all her remaining
negatives, prints, records and copyright, as well as the
goodwill in her business to her assistant Ann Forshaw,
on whose untimely death in 1986 the entire collection
passed to it's present owner, Lawrence N. Hole.
Having
taken stock of the situation - quite literally, since
the collection included over 3,000 sets of the original
1930's VIVEX tri-colour separation plates and more than
twice that number of b/w images on plate and film -
the new owner decided to set up the Yevonde Portrait
Archive as a vehicle for administering the entire collection
and promoting the work, in order to re-establish the
artist's reputation as one of the world's foremost pioneering
photographers.
As
a first step, the decision was taken to exhibit the
work as widely as possible, both in England and abroad,
in order to re-awaken public awareness of the work and,
more particularly, to introduce it to younger generations
as yet unaware of Madame Yevonde's achievements.
This
necessitated the reprinting of a sizable body of old
and new work, since the number of prints in the archive
at that time was quite insufficient for anything other
than a very limited exhibition. Over the intervening
years, no fewer than 75 colour images, and roughly the
same number of b/w ones, have been added to the body
of work available for exhibitions, as well as for sale.
Recognizing
the growing interest in fine art photography among collectors,
the Yevonde Portrait Archive decided in 1995 to produce
two limited edition folios of Madame Yevonde's best
known work, the series of portraits of society ladies
dressed in classical costume, now universally known
as 'The Goddesses'. Each folio contains ten images printed
on the finest quality watercolour paper using a pigment
transfer process, and comes in a beautiful silk-covered,
velvet-lined presentation case. The prints are fully
archival, and the edition size - limited to 30 plus
5 sets of artist's proofs - ensures their exclusivity.
These folios are very desirable objects in their own
right, and highly collectable.
Having
so far been responsible, directly or indirectly, for
more than forty exhibitions of Madame Yevonde's work
in England, and a dozen more on the Continent of Europe,
as well as a 2-year tour of six countries in South America,
which is now being extended to cover a number of European
countries, the Yevonde Portrait Archive is now turning
its attention to the United States. Two exhibitions
are already scheduled to take place in commercial galleries
over the coming months, while a number of major museums
and other institutions have also expressed great interest
in the work. There is therefore every confidence that
a major tour of American cities will follow in the near
future, affording the American public their first real
glimpse of the work of this great pioneering photographer.
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