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Rare limited edition photographic suite by Jacques Lowe containing 30 photographs of John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy, issued as The Kennedy Collection in three navy cloth portfolio cases of 10 photographs each, housed together in a navy cloth slipcase stamped in gilt, “The Kennedy Collection, A Limited Edition by Jacques Lowe.” Each semi-glossy silver gelatin photograph, 16 x 19.75 and 19.75 x 16, is signed in the lower border in felt tip by the photographer and numbered “27/75.”
Each case is titled in gilt on the spine with its subject's full name and life dates and opens with a printed contents sheet listing each image by title, place, and date, noted “All photographs ©1999 Jacques Lowe.” The John F. Kennedy contents sheet bears Lowe's printed dedication, in full: “I dedicate this album of thirty photographs taken during the joyful years 1956 through 1963 to the memory of John F. Kennedy and those closest to him. I was young, but I shall never forget. May these photographs help those who came after me remember as well.” It also bears the limitation statement: “This edition of thirty photographs is limited to seventy-five public and twenty-five museum and artist's proofs.” The John F. Kennedy case also includes a printed acknowledgments sheet in which Lowe thanks Frank Harvey of Houston, Texas, “for helping make this portfolio possible,” along with the galleries that exhibited his work. The portfolios contain:
John F. Kennedy
- “Solitude,” Coos Bay, Oregon, Fall 1959
- “In The Caroline,” Over West Virginia, March 1960
- “Rocking Chair,” Senate Office, Summer 1958
- “Omaha Profile,” Omaha Nebraska, Fall 1959
- “Inaugural Ball,” The Armory, Washington, D.C., January 19, 1961
- “Friends,” Charleston West Virginia, April 1960
- “Kansas,” General Election Campaign, Fall 1960
- “Frenzy,” Boston, Massachusetts, August 1960
- “Lumumba,” The White House, February 13, 1961
- “The Winner,” Democratic Convention, July 1960
Jacqueline Kennedy
- “Cape Cod Summer,” Jackie in Hyannis Port, August 1960
- “Pearls,” The First Family Portrait, Hyannis Port, Summer 1958
- “Diner,” Oregon, Fall 1959
- “Airport,” Portland, Oregon, Late Fall 1959
- “Nursery,” Jackie and Caroline on N Street in Georgetown, Spring 1958
- “Jackie at Home,” N Street, Washington, D.C., Fall 1959
- “Mariners,” Nantucket Bay, Summer 1960
- “Bathing Suit with Fins,” Hyannis Port, Summer 1960
- “Jackie and Caroline,” Hyannis Port, Summer 1961
- “Elysée Palace,” Paris, France June 1961
Robert F. Kennedy
- “RFK, Hickory Hill,” McLean, Virginia, September 1961
- “Bobby and David,” Hickory Hill, Virginia, Summer 1958
- “Bobby and Kathleen,” Hickory Hill, McLean, Virginia, Summer 1958
- “Huddle,” Democratic Convention, Los Angeles, July 1960
- “Vice Presidential Nomination,” The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, July 1960
- “Brothers,” The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, July 1960
- “In Hot Pursuit,” Bobby and Ethel on the football field, Hickory Hill, March 1961
- “Hyannis Port Summer,” Bobby, Michael, Courtney and dog Brumus, 1962
- “Prelude to Christmas Card,” Summer 1961
- “Attorney General,” Robert F. Kennedy in his Office at Justice, November 1961
In overall fine condition, with trivial scuffs and marks to the cases.
Born in Cologne, Germany, Jacques Lowe (1930–2001) came to New York in 1949 and began photographing the Kennedy family after a 1956 magazine assignment to photograph Robert F. Kennedy. In 1958, Joseph P. Kennedy asked him to photograph his son John, and Lowe went on to serve as the official photographer of the 1960 presidential campaign and as Kennedy's personal photographer, declining the post of White House photographer but continuing to document the administration at the president's request. Late in his life, Lowe assembled The Kennedy Collection, drawing 30 images from his years with the family, in an edition of 75 public portfolios and 25 museum and artist's proofs. According to the consignor, this example has never before been offered at auction, and Lowe completed fewer than 40 of the 75 public-edition portfolios before his death in 2001. Lowe's archive of some 40,000 Kennedy negatives was destroyed in a bank vault at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
