Helen Levitt Art
American, 1913-2009
Helen Levitt often commented that the reason she expressed herself through photography was that she was inarticulate with the spoken word. One of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century among her peers but least known by the public, from a young age she wanted to create art but knew her talents with a paintbrush or a charcoal pencil were limited. She discovered a way to artistically express herself — through the lens of a camera.
Levitt was born in Brooklyn, New York. At 18, she dropped out of high school to work in a portrait photographer’s darkroom — eventually trying her hand at photography. She trained herself to take better compositions by studying paintings in museums around New York and then using her mother’s friends as practice subjects. In 1936, after discovering the works of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson she purchased her first camera and began to take pictures of neighborhood children making sidewalk chalk drawings.
Levitt took her portfolio to the studio of Walker Evans — another photographer which she admired. Struck by her thoughtful compositions and natural talent, he hired her as his assistant. She began photographing ordinary street life in the lower-class neighborhoods of East Harlem, the Lower East Side and the Garment District in New York City.
In 1939, Levitt’s photographs were published in Fortune magazine. Later that same year, she received a grant from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim Foundation. Seeing a similarity in film noir to what she was trying to capture in black and white photography, she became a film editor. She worked on several films including The Quiet One, an Academy Award nominee.
In 1959 Levitt began to photograph in color but eventually returned to black and white photography in the 1990s. A collection of her photographs of children and their chalk drawings were eventually published, in 1987, in a book called In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages. Some of her color photographs were published in Slide Show in 2005.
On 1stDibs find original Helen Levitt black and white photography, portrait photography, color photography and more.
to
10
5
5
10
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
10
7
6
5
5
4
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
10
1
8
1
10
6,910
3,240
2,514
1,217
9
1
Artist: Helen Levitt
New York City (broken mirror)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
14 x 10 inch gelatin silver print, initialed "H.L." on verso.
From the James Agee Family Collection.
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, an...
Category
1940s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (girl with lily)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
7 x 9.25 inch gelatin silver print. Signed, titled, and dated on verso.
Provenance - from the James Agee Family Collection
Helen Levitt was a true master of...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (laughing women)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
11 x 13 7/8 inch gelatin silver print. Signed, titled, and dated on verso.
Provenance - from the James Agee Family Collection
Helen Levitt was a true master...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (three kids with masks)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
8 1/8 x 11 inch gelatin silver print, printed later. Titled and dated by the artist on verso as "N.Y. circa 1942."
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vis...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (one boy consoling another)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
7 x 11 inch gelatin silver print - signed, titled, and dated on verso.
Provenance - from the James Agee Family Collection
Helen Levitt was a true master of ...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
James Agee
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
This is a vintage silver gelatin print, from the James Agee Family Collection. Levitt and Agee were close friends, and over the years Levitt gifted a number...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (woman with milk bottles)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
11 x 6 7/8 inch gelatin silver print - signed, titled, and dated on verso.
Provenance - from the James Agee Family Collection
Helen Levitt was a true master...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (consoling woman)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
11 x 14 inch gelatin silver print. Image size 7.25 x 10.75 inches.
Signed on verso
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness tr...
Category
1930s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York City (striped socks)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
12 x 8 inch type-c print, signed on verso.
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness transformed the gritty world of New York C...
Category
1990s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
C Print
Children with Broken Mirror, New York
By Helen Levitt
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Signed and dated on verso
Image 11" x 8", Paper 14" x 11", Matted 20" x 16"
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Related Items
Red Hot Chili Peppers by Ebet Roberts
By Ebet Roberts
Located in Austin, US
A classic, stunning shot of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 by celebrated photographer, Ebet Roberts.
Signed limited edition, hand printed sil...
Category
Late 20th Century Photorealist Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Frank Zappa Vintage 8x10" Print by Norman Seeff
By Norman Seeff
Located in Austin, US
Original vintage 8x10” work print from Norman Seeff of Frank Zappa. Hand printed at the time of the photoshoot, signed on the back by Norman Seeff
In excellent condition having been stored flat in a climate controlled room
These Norman Seeff vintage...
Category
Late 20th Century Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
[Chuck Howard on Boardwalk, Probably Fire Island]
By George Platt Lynes
Located in Boston, MA
Chuck Howard was a favorite model of artists Paul Cadmus and Jared French and muse to Lynes, who captured both the erotic and everyday moments in their re...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
![[Chuck Howard on Boardwalk, Probably Fire Island]](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/george-platt-lynes-photography-chuck-howard-on-boardwalk-probably-fire-island-for-sale/a_3973/1627063040691/BB6571_03_master.jpg?width=240 "ben platt barefoot")
John Lennon, Adelaide Stage Show, 1964
Located in Cologne, DE
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they are regarded as the mo...
Category
1960s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin, Black and White
Vintage Print Silver Gelatin Signed Photograph Friedl Dzubas New York Artist
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
This is a photo of Friedl Dzubas (Abstract Expressionist) at Castelli Gallery, signed in ink and with photographer stamp verso and hand written title..
Over a 50-year span, McDarra...
Category
1950s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Beastie Boys and Run DMC by Ebet Roberts
By Ebet Roberts
Located in Austin, US
The Beastie Boys and Run DMC on the roof of B. Smith's restaurant at 47th St. and 8th Avenue in New York City on May 11, 1987, taken by Ebet Roberts.
Signed limited edition, hand pr...
Category
Late 20th Century Photorealist Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
The Eagles Vintage 8x10" Print by Norman Seeff
By Norman Seeff
Located in Austin, US
Original vintage 8x10” work print from Norman Seeff of The Eagles. Hand-printed at the time of the photoshoot and stamped with the official Norman Seeff studio stamp.
In excellent condition having been stored flat in a climate controlled room
These Norman Seeff vintage...
Category
Late 20th Century Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Peace, Williamsburg, NY, 1995
By Tina West
Located in Hudson, NY
Each year, Robin Rice celebrates a Salon style exhibition to showcase her gallery artists and invite new ones.
With Robin’s extensive experience as a gallery curator, all Robin Rice...
Category
1990s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood by Ebet Roberts
By Ebet Roberts
Located in Austin, US
Keith Richards and Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, 1983 by Ebet Roberts
Signed limited edition, hand printed silver gelatin print.
Ebet Roberts began her career in 1977 when she be...
Category
Late 20th Century Photorealist Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Vintage Street Photography Bruce Cratsley Photo Silver Gelatin Print Photograph
By Bruce Cratsley
Located in Surfside, FL
Bruce Cratsley, American (1944-1998)
Vintage gelatin silver print
Lifting Hand (Scot) Chez Moi
A surrealist image of a hand with a light study
Hand signed, titled and dated 1986-1988 verso
image (each): 15 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches, matted to 24 X 20 inches
Provenance: From the collection of AGFA Graphics Corporation
David Bruce Cratsley (1944 - 1998) was an American photographer specialized in still lifes, portraits of friends, and life in New York City. He had a reputation of master of light and shadow.
Bruce Cratsley attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1966, and then, in the early 1970s, The New School for Social Research, studying under Lisette Model.
Cratsley worked for many years as a gallerist at Marlborough Gallery before quitting in 1986 to become a full-time photographer. As "Bruce Cratsley", he exhibited in various New York galleries, like: Laurence Miller Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Witkin Gallery. Cratsley was represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery, a dealer of fine art photography based in SoHo. He was photographed by Elsa Dorfman...
Category
1980s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Sailor, Istanbul, 1994
By Micheal McLaughlin
Located in Hudson, NY
Each year, Robin Rice celebrates a Salon style exhibition to showcase her gallery artists and invite new ones.
With Robin’s extensive experience as a gallery curator, all Robin Rice...
Category
1990s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Tipper Gore, Democratic Fundraiser 1992 Photo
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
Tipper Gore at Democratic Fund Raiser 10/1/1992
Photographer is Fred McDarrah
Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, it's off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests.
Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office.
Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist.
For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked "McPhoto."
An exhibit of McDarrah’s photos of artists presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea was hailed by The New York Times as “a visual encyclopedia of the era’s cultural scene.”
artists in their studios, (Alice Neel, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline), actors (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro on the set of “Taxi Driver”), musicians (Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan) and documentary images of early happenings and performances (Yayoi Kusama, Charlotte Moorman, Al Hansen, Jim Dine, Nam June Paik). The many images of Andy Warhol include the well-known one with his Brillo boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964. Woody Allen, Diane Arbus, W. H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Joan Baez, Louise Bourgeois, David Bowie, Jimmy Breslin, William Burroughs, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Christo, Leonard Cohen, Merce Cunningham, William de Kooning, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Indiana, Mick Jagger, Jasper Johns, Kusama, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Lou Reed, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and others.
McDarrah’s prints have been collected in depth by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. His work is in numerous public and private collections.
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore (née Aitcheson; born August 19, 1948) is an American social issues advocate who was the second lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She is the estranged wife of Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, from whom she separated in 2010.
In 1985, Gore co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), which advocated for labeling of record covers of releases featuring profane language, especially in the heavy metal, punk and hip hop genres. Throughout her decades of public life, she has advocated for placing advisory labels on music (leading critics to call her a censor), mental health awareness, women's causes, children's causes, LGBT rights and reducing homelessness.
Gore co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) with Susan Baker, wife of then–United States secretary of the treasury James Baker, because Gore heard her then 11-year-old daughter Karenna playing "Darling Nikki" by Prince. The group's goal was to increase parental and consumer awareness of music that contained explicit content through voluntary labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers. According to an article by NPR, Gore went "before Congress to urge warning labels for records marketed to children. A number of individuals including Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, Jello Biafra...
Category
1990s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Previously Available Items
New York ("Spider Girl")
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
This work is one of Helen Levitt's most iconic color images, and one of only five images made as dye transfer prints. The image size measures 9.25 x 14.25 inches, and the print is si...
Category
1980s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Dye Transfer
New York City (boys dancing)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
This 14 x 11 inch gelatin silver print was printed in the 1980s, and is signed on verso.
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiven...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
James Agee, King Street apartment
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
This is a vintage silver gelatin print, from the James Agee Family Collection. Levitt and Agee were close friends, and over the years Levitt gifted a number...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
James Agee
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
This is a mounted vintage silver gelatin print, from the James Agee Family Collection. Levitt and Agee were close friends, and over the years Levitt gifted ...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
N.Y.C. (5₵ Soda)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
Helen Levitt made her images of children's chalk drawings early in her career. The prints she produced were traditionally small in scale. In 2000, she and our gallery launched a proj...
Category
1930s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
N.Y.C. (Button to Secret Passage)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
Helen Levitt made her images of children's chalk drawings early in her career. The prints she produced were traditionally small in scale. In 2000, she and our gallery launched a proj...
Category
1930s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Poster Girl, NYC
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness transformed the gritty world of New York City’s poorer neighborhoods into captivating,...
Category
1940s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York (rolling record)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
14 x 11 inch gelatin silver print, signed by the artist on verso.
10.75 x 7.5 inch image size
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inven...
Category
1980s Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York City (cops and robbers)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness transformed the gritty world of New York City’s poorer neighborhoods into captivating,...
Category
1930s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York City (woman reaching out)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
11 x 14 inch gelatin silver print (image size 5.6 x 8.25 inches)
Signed on verso.
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness ...
Category
1930s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York City (broken mirror)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print, signed on verso.
This is one of only a handful of prints of this iconic image that were printed in this larger size. It was usually printed in a 14...
Category
1940s Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
New York City (3 kids with masks)
By Helen Levitt
Located in New York, NY
11 x 14 inch gelatin silver print, 1939 (printed later)
Signed on verso
Helen Levitt was a true master of the street, one whose poetic vision, humor, and inventiveness transforme...
Category
1930s American Modern Helen Levitt Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Helen Levitt art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Helen Levitt art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Helen Levitt in silver gelatin print, c print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Helen Levitt art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Weegee, Lucienne Bloch, and Robert Capa. Helen Levitt art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,500 and tops out at $12,500, while the average work can sell for $8,500.