![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/edward-steichens-balzac-open-sky-11-pm-1908-est-700000-1-million-602x800.jpeg\")
Edward Steichen\u2019s Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M. (1908) | Image via Sotheby\u2019s <\/p>\n Edward Steichen\u2019s Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M. (1908) | Image via Sotheby\u2019s <\/p>\n
A rare photograph by Edward Steichen, one of only three known prints of its size, is expected to sell for up to $1 million at auction.<\/p>\n
Sotheby\u2019s will present the work as part of a series of auctions featuring the Jill and Marshall Rose Collection<\/a>, a private collection focused on 20th-century American and European modernist photography. Among the highlights is Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M. (1908), which carries an estimate of $700,000 to $1 million and is believed to be one of only three surviving examples at this scale.<\/p>\n Steichen\u2019s photograph depicts a sculpture by Auguste Rodin of the French writer Honor\u00e9 de Balzac. Rodin completed the plaster version of the sculpture in 1898, though it was not cast in bronze and installed in Paris until 1939.<\/p>\n According to Fine Books & Collections,<\/a> the print of Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M. was discovered decades later at a yard sale on the northern shores of Lake George by a young man who was drawn to its wide wooden frame. After noticing a faint \u201cSteichen\u201d signature, the photograph was later sold to Jill and Marshall Rose in the 1980s for $53,400, setting a record for the artist at the time and ranking among the highest prices ever paid for a photograph.<\/p>\n Edward Steichen was one of the most important American photographers of the early 20th century. He became instrumental in establishing a status for the medium as an art form. Steichen\u2019s photographs of Rodin\u2019s sculpture are known for transforming the solid figure into a shadowy, atmospheric presence. The project began after Rodin, whose statue had been rejected by the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Gens de Lettres in 1898, invited Steichen to photograph it in an effort to better convey his artistic vision. Finding the plaster surface too harsh in daylight, Rodin moved the sculpture outdoors, where Steichen photographed it under moonlight.<\/p>\n In late summer 1908, Steichen worked over two nights from sunset to sunrise, using exposures of up to an hour. He adjusted his position and camera in response to the movement of the moon to achieve the desired effect. Rodin later said of the images, \u201cYou will make the world understand my Balzac through these pictures. They are like Christ walking in the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n The photographs were first exhibited in 1909 at the Photo-Secession Gallery in what would be Steichen\u2019s final show with Alfred Stieglitz. Three of the images were later published in Camera Work in 1911.<\/p>\n With Steichen\u2019s negatives from this period lost during World War I, prints of this size are extremely rare. The Roses\u2019 print of Balzac, The Open Sky, 11 P.M. is believed to be one of only three surviving examples, with the other two held by institutions. Steichen\u2019s work remains highly sought after. In 2022, Steichen\u2019s photograph The Flatiron sold for $11.8 million, becoming the second-most expensive photograph ever sold at the time.<\/a><\/p>\n