Lotte Jacobi
Sycamore Maple Leaf-Bud

Sycamore Maple Leaf-Bud

© Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire

Sycamore Maple Leaf-Bud
Sycamore Maple Leaf-Bud
ArtistAmerican, born Germany, 1896–1990
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Sycamore Maple Leaf-Bud
  • Acer Pseudoplatanus, Bergahorn, Blattknospe
Datec. 1929
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 1/16 × 6 5/8 in. (23 × 16.8 cm)
Sheet: 9 3/16 × 6 13/16 in. (23.4 × 17.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.1352
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Lotte Jacobi came from a long line of photographers and managed
her family’s photographic studio in Berlin from 1927 until 1935, a period
during which German photographers rejected Expressionism and abstraction and
instead looked squarely at the natural world—an approach they called “New
Objectivity.” This close-up of the bud of a sycamore maple comes from the
archives of Ernst Fuhrmann, a photographer, writer, and editor whose book Die
Pflanze als Lebewesen (The Plant as a Living Creature, 1930) sought to
highlight the animal qualities of plants, a goal well met by Jacobi’s picture
of the insect-like leaf bud taking form, almost like a butterfly emerging from
a cocoon. 




ProvenanceEstate of the artist; [Stephan White Gallery, Los Angeles]; Manfred Heiting, Malibu, December 8, 1979; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in pencil, verso, upper right corner: Jacobi 23a [underlined]
Inscribed in pencil, verso, upper center: Acer 23 a // CR02|+ [?] [sideways]
Inscribed in pencil, verso, center: Acer pseudoplatanus // Bergahorn. // Blatknospe.
Inscribed in pencil, verso, right center: Sycamore // Maple // plane-tree // leaf-bud.
Inscribed in pencil, verso, lower left: C.G.
Stamped in red, verso, lower right center: LOTTE JACOBI // [text cut off]
Printed on applied label, verso, lower right: Please Give Credit To // Jacobi [inscribed in black ink] // From MONKEMEYER // MONKEMEYER PRESS PHOTO SERVICE // 225 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY // LExington 2-5566 // This photograph is for your own use only and is // not to be loaned, sold, syndicated, or used for // advertising without written permission.
Stamped in black, verso, bottom center: FROM THE FUHRMANN ARCHIVES // Ernst Fuhrmann, Editor

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Carl Zuckmayer with family on the terrace of his apartment
Lotte Jacobi
1928
Gelatin silver print
96.1810
Chaim Weizmann, The First President of Israel
Lotte Jacobi
1947, printed later
Gelatin silver print
96.1809
[Woman working on a farm]
Lotte Jacobi
1932–1933
Gelatin silver print
2004.2131
[People working on a farm]
Lotte Jacobi
1932–1933
Gelatin silver print
2004.2132
Schajulskaya, Tânzerin
Lotte Jacobi
1929
Gelatin silver print
2002.1354
Albert Renger-Patzsch
Lotte Jacobi
1963
Gelatin silver print
2002.1353
Marc Chagall and His Daughter, Ida
Lotte Jacobi
1945
Gelatin silver print
2020.279
Peter Lorre
Lotte Jacobi
early 1930s
Gelatin silver print
2004.1976
Paul Strand
Lotte Jacobi
1963
Gelatin silver print
78.246
Ernesto de Fiori and Mady Christians
Lotte Jacobi
1930
Gelatin silver print
86.31
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Jacobi
1928
Gelatin silver print
84.187
Butterflies
Lotte Jacobi
c. 1950
Gelatin silver print
86.539