Maurice Tabard

mounted, signed, titled, and dated (twice) by the photographer in pencil on the mount, matted, framed, exhibition labels from University Art Museum, Berkeley; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, on the reverse, matted, 1932

Acquired by Robert Shapazian from the photographer, late 1970s

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1989

Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, Anxious Visions: Surrealist Art, October - December 1990

Santa Fe, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, In Camera, November 1993 - February 1994

Madrid, Salon de Exposiciones, The Lost Bodies, Photography and Surrealists, November 1995 - January 1996; and traveling to:

Barcelona, Centre Cultural, January - April 1996

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Dali, Picasso, and the Surrealist Vision, October - December 2005

This print:

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 60

Sidra Stich, Anxious Visions: Surrealist Art (University Art Museum, Berkeley, 1990, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 137

This photograph is on heavy double-weight paper with a matte surface. Visible only upon close examination is a faint four-inch diagonal line, not disrupting the emulsion, descending diagonally from the upper right corner, and a four-inch arched line roughly parallel to right edge. There is silvering in the print's dark areas, appropriate for a print of this age. There is minor wear in the print's lower corners. None of these issues is immediately apparent, and they do not diminish the fine appearance of this print. The print is mounted to heavy paper. The mount's right edge is unevenly trimmed. There is some minor sunning visible on the mount.
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Maurice Tabard is known for experimenting with photography's technical possibilities.  He was particularly adept at the photomontage, a superimposition of negatives.  The title of this Tabard photograph refers to a mystery novel by Claude Aveline: La Double Mort de Frédéric Belot (The Double Death of  Frédéric Belot ).  Published in 1932, this roman policier was based upon a true story in which two men discovered dead appeared to share the same identity.  While it is likely that Tabard created this image for the book's cover illustration, its ultimate use in this way has not been confirmed.  Regardless, Tabard was clearly inspired by the challenge of creating a photograph that would evoke the book's enigmantic theme, which he achieved by deftly fusing two exposures of the same 'corpse' into a single image.