Man Ray

negative print, initialed by the photographer in pencil, his '31 bis, Rue Campagne Première, Paris XIVe' (Manford M6) studio stamp (crossed out), his 'Paris Ve, 8, Rue du Val-de-Grace, Téléph. Danton 92-25' (Manford M8) studio stamp, and numerical notations in unidentified hands in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1930  

Collection of Juliet Man Ray, the photographer's widow

Private Collection, acquired from the above

Private European Collection, acquired from the above

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Other prints of this image:

James Thrall Soby, publisher, Man Ray Photographs 1920 Paris 1934 (Paris and New York, 1934), pl. 51

Arturo Schwarz, The Rigour of Imagination (New York, 1977),  pl. 433

Rosalind Krauss and Jane Livingston, L'Amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism (Washington, D. C.: Corcoran Museum of Art, 1985, in conjunction with the exhibition), fig. 233

Emmanuelle de L'Ecotais, et al., Man Ray: Photography and Its Double (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1998), p. 144

Janus, Man Ray: The Photographic Image (Woodbury, 1980), pl. 101

Man Ray 1890-1976 (KunstHausWien, 1996), pl. 117

Emmanuelle de L'Ecotais and Katherine Ware, Man Ray (Köln, 2000), p. 95

Jill Quasha, Paris in the Twenties and Thirties (New York, 1986), p. 7

Valerio Dehó, ed., Man Ray: Women (Bologna, 2005), p. 58

This print is on double-weight paper with a velvety matte surface and very slightly warm tonality. It is essentially in excellent condition. Some faint silvering, appropriate for a print of this age, can be seen in the dark areas on the print's edges. The print is trimmed to the image. There is very minor wear on the print's corners, visible only upon close examination. There is nothing to distract one from the fine appearance of this lovely print. On the reverse is an uneven half-inch strip of old glue remains along the top edge – this indicates that this print was at one time affixed to a mount. Our dating of this print is based upon a number of factors. The paper type and print quality are wholly characteristic of Man Ray's work from this period. Man Ray lived at 31 bis Rue Campagne from 1922 to 1935, when he moved to 8 Rue du Val-de-Grace. Man Ray stamped the print offered here with his Rue Campagne address, presumably at the time of its making. Upon his move to Rue du Val-de-Grace, he crossed out his old address and applied his current studio stamp. This suggests that the print was made some time between the 1930 date of the negative and the photographer's move to the new address in 1935.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This striking and surreal image of Jacqueline Goddard was included by Man Ray in his first book, the seminal Photographs by Man Ray 1920 Paris 1934.  As of this writing, it is believed that there are 5 other early prints of this image extant.  Three are in institutional collections: at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (currently on view in the Museum's exhibition, Framing the Century: Master Photographers, 1840-1940).  The other two prints are in private collections.    

Man Ray's tireless creativity led him to experiment with every aspect of photography, and his innovative approach to technique—which encompassed photograms, solarization, and much more—expanded the vocabulary of the medium.   Man Ray's negative portrait of Jacqueline Goddard is one of the most adventurous of the photographer's many images of women.  Printed from an autochrome, as opposed to a conventional negative, the photograph is an illustration of Man Ray's desire to push photography in new directions.  The autochrome was a color process, patented in 1904, that yielded a positive color transparency on glass.  The soft colors and Impressionistic graininess of the autochrome initially attracted the attention of Stieglitz, Steichen, and Kühn, who worked extensively with the process shortly after it was introduced.  While the autochrome was an ideal tool for a Pictorialist photographer, it was not an obvious choice for Man Ray, whose work was engaged equally with Modernism and Surrealism.  Further, the autochrome had fallen out fashion by the time Man Ray used it to photograph Goddard.  

The autochrome, used in place of a negative during the printing process, yielded a photograph with reversed tones and a diffuse luminosity.  Man Ray took the image a step further from the original by rotating it 90 degrees, so that Goddard—who had been lying down during the sitting—appears in the finished print to float in space with her hair streaming dramatically behind her.  Through unconventional printing and innovative framing, Man Ray transformed the color original into pure Surrealism.   

Jacqueline Goddard (née Barsotti) (1911 – 2003) met Man Ray in Paris in 1927, when she was only sixteen years old.  She fast became one of the photographer's favorite models.  Though young, Goddard became an habitué of Paris's lively artistic and social circles, and was asked to pose by Matisse, Foujita, and other artists of the day.