Nobel Prize Ceremony, 1929
Vintage gelatin silver print
7 x 9 1/2"
Signed, titled, and stamped on verso
June 27, 2022
This photograph of the 1929 Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden represents Alfred Eisenstaedt’s first assignment as a full-time photographer. Very shortly after deciding to dedicate himself fully to photography, the Pacific & Atlantic Photos agency sent him to document the 1929 ceremony. Seated in the first row on the right is Thomas Mann, in advance of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. Seated behind him in the white sash is Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, the Swedish author who herself won the prize in 1909.
The Nobel Prize found its way into the news again this past week when the Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitri A. Muratov auctioned his Nobel medal for $103.5 million to an anonymous buyer. The amount sets a record price for a Nobel medal, and the proceeds will be donated to UNICEF to aid Ukrainian children displaced by Russia’s invasion.
