Herb Ritts valuation
American photographer of celebrities and the body, in black and white with the poise of classical sculpture.
Herb Ritts (1952–2002) was born in Brentwood, Los Angeles, where his parents ran a furniture business, and studied economics, with a minor in art history, at Bard College, graduating in 1975.
What a work by Herb Ritts is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
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Bio
Herb Ritts (1952–2002) was born in Brentwood, Los Angeles, where his parents ran a furniture business, and studied economics, with a minor in art history, at Bard College, graduating in 1975. Self-taught as a photographer, he came to notice with pictures of his friend Richard Gere, then an aspiring actor, and through the 1980s and 1990s photographed actors, musicians and models for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Interview and many other magazines. His black and white portraits and nudes borrowed the poise of classical Greek sculpture, in pictures such as Fred with Tires (1984). He photographed Madonna for the cover of True Blue (1986) and also directed music videos.
His photographs come to market as gelatin silver prints and, for some pictures, platinum prints, in different sizes and editions. A buyer will want to know whether a print was made and signed in his lifetime or printed later, the edition and size, and the stamps on the reverse. The Herb Ritts Foundation in Los Angeles looks after the archive. Prints should be checked for silvering, creases, scuffs and damage to the mount, and platinum prints for staining.
At a glance
- Born
- 13 August 1952, Los Angeles
- Died
- 26 December 2002, Los Angeles
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
