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Original vintage semi-glossy 7 x 9 silver gelatin photograph of Albert Einstein, pipe in hand, taken by Trude Fleischmann circa 1946, showing the genius in a handsome half-length pose, holding his beloved smoking pipe in his right hand. Displayed in its original 10 x 12.75 mat, signed on the mount in fountain pen by the photographer, "Trude Fleischmann," with Fleischmann's credit stamp on the backing. In fine condition.
The photographer, Trude Fleischmann, had a studio in Vienna before moving to the United States—also under pressure from world affairs—to open a studio in New York City. Her work spanned celebrity portraits and fashion photography (most notably for Vogue), with some of her famous subjects including Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Arturo Toscanini.
Einstein was well-known for his pipe smoking—other than his messy hair, there may be no more characteristic element of his image than his pipe. Even in later years when he curbed his tobacco use on doctor's orders, he could not bear to give up the tactile experience—he would smokelessly cradle the bowl in hand or clench the stem between his teeth while he did his deepest thinking. Upon joining the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club in 1950, he reportedly said: 'I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.'
From the estate of Margaret Sanders Adams, the daughter of KFC founder Col. Harland Sanders; notably, she received several photographs from Einstein's executor Otto Nathan to use as reference material for her creation of a bust of Einstein.
Sanders documents her longstanding interest in Albert Einstein, her creation of Einstein's bust, her friendship with Otto Nathan, and his delivery of her 'open letter' to Einstein in her memoir, The Colonel's Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter (pp. 186-239), published in 1996.
