Hans Bellmer

(Paris: Editions GLM, 1936), a volume illustrated with 10 photographs, each mounted to thin board and numbered sequentially in pencil on the mount, 1930s; 8vo, stiff printed wrappers, rose-colored endpapers and text pages, inscribed and signed by the photographer in ink on the half-title, stamped with edition number ‘92’ (of 100) opposite the title

Swann Galleries, New York, 13 December 2005, Sale 2061, Lot 27

Andrew Roth, et al., The Book of 100 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century (New York, 2001), pp. 88-89

Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume 1 (London, 2004), p. 106

Christian Bouqueret, Des Années Folles aux Années Noires: La Nouvelle Vision Photographique en France, 1920-1940 (Paris, 1997), pp. 68-69

This is a rare presentation copy of Bellmer’s seminal 1936 book, La Poupée, illustrated with mounted photographs documenting the construction of his Doll.  Bellmer inscribed this book to René Renne, a poet involved in the publication of the Surrealist review Cahiers du Sud.  The inscription is dated 1946, the year they discussed the possibility of devoting an entire issue of Cahiers to Bellmer’s work.  Renne’s poetry appeared in a variety of Surrealist contexts, including Charles Henri Ford’s American journal View.   

This example of La Poupée contains two prints of the image normally designated as Plate 2: the profile study of the Doll’s armature.  This image is repeated again in the present volume as Plate 4.