platinum print, tipped to a paper mount, initialed and dated in pencil on the mount, 'Propriedad de Lola Cueto' in ink on the reverse,  framed, Buhl Collection and Guggenheim Museum exhibition labels on the reverse, 1925

Originally in the collection of Lola Cueto, Mexico City
Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 1995

New York, Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, and 4 other international venues through 2007 (see Appendix 1)

West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Show of Hands: Photographs and Sculpture from the Buhl Collection, January - March 2008

Seoul, South Korea, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Asian tour), March - May 2009, and 2 other Asian venues through 2011 (see Appendix 1)

Jennifer Blessing, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Guggenheim Foundation, 2004), pp. 32 and 234 (this print)

Mildred Constantine, Tina Modotti: A Fragile Life (New York, 1983), p. 117

Margaret Hooks, Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary (San Francisco, 1993), p. 100

Sarah M. Lowe, Tina Modotti: Photographs (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995), pl. 18

This diminutive and beautiful photograph is on warm-toned platinum paper and is essentially in excellent condition. There is a small circular area of original retouching in the lower right quadrant. Very close attention reveals a small area of foxing at the center of the print's top edge. None of these issues diminishes the appeal of this lovely, subtly rendered print. The photograph is tipped at the top corners to the mount, and is attached at the bottom corners with modern paper tape hinges on the reverse. It is mounted to a sheet of thin stiff board with a slick surface. This mount has discolored over the years. There is a thin strip of paper tape on the edges of the reverse of the mount, likely from an old mat/frame presentation.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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This meticulously composed study by Tina Modotti was an adventurous choice for the Buhl Collection: the ‘little hand’ of the title is actually a flower.  The flower’s resemblance to the human hand is reflected in the plant’s Latin classification, Chiranthodendron pentadactylon.  Native to Mexico and Guatamala, it is known by many names, including Árbol de las Manitas (Tree of Little Hands), and the Devil’s Hand Tree.  Its flowers are an intense red and have been used in folk remedies.

The flower in Modotti’s photograph may be the one Edward Weston mentions in his Daybook entry for 12 December 1924, in his description of a trip he took with Modotti and the artist Jean Charlot to Guadalupe: ‘We purchased, too, a weird flower, like a witch’s claw, blood stained: flor de manita’ (Daybooks, Vol. 1, p. 109).  During Weston’s return to California in the winter of 1924-25, Tina Modotti took the peculiar plant as a photographic subject and created the anthropomorphic image presented here.  Charlot mentions Modotti’s photograph in a letter to Edward Weston, of 27 March 1925: ‘Tina did some nice photos (especially one of this plant that looks like a hand)’ (quoted by Amy Stark, ‘The Letters of Tina Modotti to Edward Weston,’ The Archive, No. 22, January 1986, p. 23). 

The inscription on the reverse of the photograph’s mount reads, ‘Propriedad de Lola Cueto,’ indicating that it was at one time in the collection of this Mexican artist and puppeteer.  Lola Cueto (1897-1978) studied painting as a young woman and married the sculptor Germán Cueto in 1919.  The couple traveled to Paris in the 1920s and there became interested in puppetry.  In Mexico City they were part of the city’s vibrant art scene that included the Mexican muralists, as well as Modotti and Weston.  Cueto’s work combined elements of Cubism and other contemporary trends with Mexican folk art, and one can imagine that Flor de Manita’s abstracted shapes appealed to her m𝓀odern sensibility.