JANET LEHR INC After four years spent traveling to dusty, closeted collections of photographs in
American and European museums and estates, buying family archives and in general developing
sources, for both 19th and 20th century American, European and Asian photographs, Janet Lehr Inc
was officially born in 1972. During the pre-history of Janet Lehr Inc., between 1968 -1972, a great
effort was made to interest her ‘fine art’ collectors, developed thru her Gallery 6M in New York City,
during in the 1960’s, in photography. One after the other rolled their eyes at her idiocy. There were
already significant holdings of photographs in prestigious American institutions such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of
Chicago, George Eastman House and the National Gallery as well as in major European Museums and
Libraries. However, none but the George Eastman House and Museum of Modern Art, had made a
firm commitment to support the field with separate photography departments.
When in 1972 Janet Lehr Inc was incorporated, it was to Museum directors, curators and some art
history scholars, buying for their own accounts that a clientele was developed.
During these years, when the collecting of photographs was a ‘new’ concept, she helped build the
collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne
Australia; National Gallery of New Zealand; the American 19th Century collection at the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Cincinnati Museum of Art; Detroit Art Institute and to a
lesser extent, the Getty Museum. The bonds of those early years continue and widen as curators and
directors widen their circles.
Dubbed the connoisseur dealer by Ann Horten, Curator of Photography, Sotheby’s NY, in an
interview published in Time Magazine, in the mid seventies, Lehr found and acquired great
material, built public and private collections and encouraged museum exhibitions, all which
define the activities of the gallery to this day. Prices for individual photographs have greatly.
In 1975, a high auction price was $5,000, later in the decade it quintupled to $25,000. The
best was not long in coming. Record breaking prices are set publically each year. The1993
season saw a single work auctioned for $440,000. Today, a single photograph has topped
$3 million.
Janet Lehr Inc. has been able to provide a wealth of material for over 40 institutions and countless
private collections, and aided in creating numerous museum exhibitions in 4 decades.
In 1986, interested in further broadening the collecting of photography, she became a partner
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in Vered Gallery, East Hampton NY, where she integrates the sale of painting, sculpture and
photography in international collections world-wide.
Following, is a partial list of exhibitions and catalogues supported either in whole or large measure by
Janet Lehr Inc.
Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc.
1974
Middle Eastern Photography. Metropolitan Museum of Art. March 1 - June 15. Works
included Francis Frith mammoth plate photographs and their glass plate negatives.
1975
Era of Exploration. Metropolitan Museum of Art. May 21 - August 30.
Works included mammoth plates by William Henry Jackson and Carleton E Watkins.
1978
Amerikanische Landschaftsphotographie: 1860-1978. Neuen Sammlung Munchen
Loans included George Barker, George Barnard, William Bell, Alvin Langdon Coburn,
Frank J Haynes, Eadweard Muybridge, Edward Weston and Carleton E Watkins.
1979
Photography Rediscovered: American Photographs 1900-1930. The Whitney Museum of
American Art, NY. September 19 - November 25
Works included Francis Bruguiere, Arnold Genthe, Charles Sheeler and Karl Struss.
1980
American Light-The Luminist Movement 1850 - 1875 . The National Gallery,
Washington DC. February 7 - June 15
Works included Andrew J Russell, Senaca Ray Stoddard, and Louise Deshong
Woodbridge.
Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc ( continued )
1982
Philadelphia Naturalistic Photography 1865 - 1906. Yale University Art Museum.
February 10 - April 7
Loans included John Griscom Bullock, Robert S Redfield, and Louise Deshong
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Woodbridge
1983
Turn of the Century Photographs by Robert Demachy (1859 - 1936).
Yale University
Art Gallery. March 7 - May 1.
Loan of 83 Gum bichromate, bromoil and bromoil transfer prints by Robert Demachy.
1986
Self Portraiture As Performance. Museum of Modern Art, NY. April / May.
Loans included Mathew Brady, Thomas Eakins, Alexander Gardner, William Henry
Jackson, Eadweard Muybridge, Lucas Samaras, Senaca Ray Stoddard, Karl Struss,
Carleton E Watkins.
Staging Ones Self. National Portrait Gallery, London. October 3 - January 11.
Loans included Thomas Eakins, John Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Gertrude Kasebier,
Herbert Ponting, Napoleon Sarony, Senaca Ray Stoddard, Carleton E Watkins, Clarence
White, and Louise Deshong Woodbridge.
1989
On The Art Of Fixing A Shadow. National Gallery, Washington DC. May 7 - July 30; Art
Institute of Chicago September 16 - November 26; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
December 21 - February 25. Loans included Alvin Langdon Coburn, Fredrick Holland
Day, Thomas Eakins, John Beasely Greene, Francis Frith, William Henry Jackson and
Andrew J Russell.
Photography Until Now. Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Francis Frith glass plate negative, John Beasely Greene, William Henry Jackson,
Eadweard Muybridge, and August Salzmann.
1990
Splendors of the American West - Thomas Moran's Art of the Grand Canyon and
Yellowstone.. Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham AL Loaned all the photographs
used in the exhibition; William Henry Jackson, albumen prints of Yellowstone.
1991
Poetic Realities - American Landscape Photography. Columbus Museum of Fine Arts,
Columbus Oh. January 5 - March 30.
Public exhibitions entirely or partially supported by Janet Lehr Inc. ( continued )
Works included George Barnard, William Bell, Alvin Langdon Coburn, John K Hillers,
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William Henry Jackson, Eadweard Muybridge, Robert S Redfield, Carleton E Watkins,
Edward Weston, Minor White and Louise Deshong Woodbridge.
1992
La Menagerie du Palais. Musee Centre National De La Photographie, Palais du Tokyo
Paris France. June 8 - September 16
Loans consisted of all the Horatio Ross stag pictures.
1993
Horatio Ross - 1850’s Scottish Photographer. Yale University, British Center For The
Arts. September 11 - November 26. Works loaned consisted of 45 albumen prints from
the only known Ross presentation album.
1994
MAGNUM OPUS. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. February 5 April 14. The 112 works loaned comprise an entire History of Photography collection.
The American Landscape. Cleveland Museum of Art. January 14 - April 4
19th century western exploration photographs.
1995
Weegee. Brown University, Providence RI February 4 - March 12, 1995
1997
Man Ray’s/Man Ray Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College April 4 - June 8,
1997
Proposed exhibitions from the collection include:
Roger Fenton, Crimean War Scenes
John Thomson, Asian photographs 1868-1872
Alvin Langdon Coburn, Photographs and Watercolors
Man Ray: The Experience of the Experiment
Photosecession: Alice Boughton, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Robert Demachy, Clarence
White, F. Holland Day
William Henry Jackson: Photographer of the American West
Felix Beato - 1860 Photographs of Japan
Carleton E Watkins: The Duke of Manchester's Collection and other works.
Minor White - The New Vision
Ben Shahn: Ohio Years
Timothy O'Sullivan: Photographs From The Wheeler Survey of the 50th Meridian
Julia Margaret Cameron: Portrait and Fantasy
Weegee The Famous
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Publications by Janet Lehr Inc.
Catalogues: Series I
Annual 1972 - 1976
Catalogues: Series II
1978 - 1986
1:1 John Thomson-Photographs of Asia and Street Life of London (complete). 84 illus/32 pp
1:2 Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs. 76 illus/32 pp
1:3 Portraits of Photographers. 48 illus/24 pp
1:4 Prehistory of Photography: Daguerrian Period; Photographically Illustrated Books; Albums;
Books; Autographs; Manuscripts; also, Reference Material; Photographic Journals; Magazines;
Photographic Ephemera. 11 illus/24 pp
2:1 Photographically Illustrated Books; Albums; Manuscripts; Ephemera. 29 illus/24 pp
2:2 Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Landscape Photography. 79 illus/40 pp
2:3 American Photography: 1914 - 1950. 78 illus/24 pp
3:1 Still Life, Sculpture, Genre, Nudes - Featuring Photographs of Objects by John Gruen.
32 illus/24 pp
3:2 Portraits - Featuring Photographs of Bodybuilders by Arthur F Gay. 55 illus/16 pp
3:3 Images of War. 26 illus/16pp
3:4 Landscapes - Featuring Photographs by Louise Deshong Woodbridge. 35 illus/32 pp
4:1 Twentieth Century American Landscapes - Featuring Rick Dingus. 39 illus/24 pp
4:2 Marine Views. 29 illus/16 pp
4:3 Architecture and Abstraction - Featuring Abstractions by Humphrey Spender. 45 illus/16 pp
4:4 The Figure in Photography. 32 illus/16 pp
5:1 Illustrations of Photographs From Several Recently Acquired Collections - Alexander Ingles,
Scotland 1840's; Maxime Du Camp, Egypt 1849; John Lloyd, Wales 1850's; Frank Meadow
Sutcliffe; Minor White 39 illus/24 pp
5:2 Naturalistic Photography: 1865 - 1917. 34 illus/ 16 pp
Publications by Janet Lehr Inc. ( continued )
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5:3 William Henry Jackson - Picture Maker of the American West Photographs from the
Frederick Candee Nims Collection (assembled pre-1880). 21 illus/24 pp
5:4 Beyond The Image: Present and Past. Photographs by Marilyn Bridges, Rick Dingus, Ben Shahn,
Harold Edgerton, Arthur F
Gay, Eadweard Muybridge (Motion). 67 illus/ 32 pp
6:1 Tim Gidal - Europe 1929- 1934; SHTETL 1932; Palestine 1935-1939; England 1939; India 1940.
Text, 40 illus/ 32 pp
6:2 French Primitive Photography - 1850 through 1911. Photographs by Bisson Freres BlanquartEvrard, Adolphe Braun, Robert Demachy, Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Disdere Durand Brager et
Lassimonne, Godefroy, John Beasely Greene, Henri Le Secq, Charles Marville, Nadar, Jules
Robucheron, Julien Vallou de Villeneuve. Text, 40 illus/ 32 pp
6:3 Alvin Langdon Coburn. Text, 30 illus/ 32 pp
6:4 Nineteenth Century American Photographs - Between the Sublime and Photosecession. Works by
Louise Deshong Woodbridge, Edwin Hale Lincoln, Robert S Redfield. 29 illus/32 pp
7:1/2 Idylls of the King and other Poems. Photographically Illustrated by Julia Margaret Cameron.
Text by Alfred LordTennyson, 25 illus/ 64 pp
7:3/4 Horatio Ross - Presentation Album to Justine Ross Foreward by Samuel Wagstaff, text by
Donna Stein. 110 illus/ 64 pp
8:1 Twelve Contemporary Photographers - Audrey Flack, Denny Moers, Rick Dingus, Michael Lehr,
Jill Freeman, Reed Estabrook, Marilyn Bridges, Anne Sager, Russell Munson, Marley Stone and
others. 89 illus (49 full color)/ 24 pp
8:2 Masterworks by Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographers - JANET LEHR INC. for
Vered Gallery. 36 illus/ 24 pp
8:3 Daguerreotypes. 36 illus/ 24 pp
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