Man Ray

photogram, a unique object, signed by the photographer in pencil on the image, with reduction notations, in French, in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, tipped to a mount, the mount with the annotation ‘Top’ in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, framed, 1924

Collection of Jacob Bean, New York

By descent to Bean’s heir

Sotheby’s New York, 6 October 1999, Sale 7348, Lot 287

Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

Private collection, San Francisco

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 2008

Les Feuilles Libres, No. 40, May-June 1925, p. 256 (this unique object)

Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais, Man Ray, Rayographies (Paris, 2002), no. 132 (a copy print of this image)

Arturo Schwartz, Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination (New York, 1977), p. 251, fig. 406

This Rayograph is on double-weight paper with a matte surface. The print is signed by Man Ray in pencil in the lower right corner. In terms of its print quality and condition, this is an ideal early Rayograph and possesses all of the depth and visual dynamism expected from the best of Man Ray's work from this period. This unique print is essentially in excellent condition. There is a series of faint linear creases along the upper left edge, and a smaller series on lower right edge; these appear to have been skillfully retouched, and their impact is inconsequential. Very minor losses of emulsion along the top portion of the left edge have also been skillfully retouched and can only be seen upon close examination. There is very minor wear on the print's corners, also only visible upon close examination. The print is attached with what appear to be modern rice-paper hinges to its original mount. The mount is stiff, buff-colored paper. Glue remains on the reverse of the mount suggest that it was attached at one time to a secondary mount.
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 early Rayograph captures the mystery and sly beauty present in the best of Man Ray’s photograms from the early 1920s.  Composed in his darkroom, without the use of a camera, it presents a tableau suggestive of a landscape, but ultimately resists such easy interpretation. Like Man Ray himself, this Rayograph comprises its own unique category within the art of the 20^th century. 

Man Ray scholar Steven Manford notes that this early Rayograph was reproduced in the May-June 1925 issue of Les Feuilles Libres, along with three other Rayographs and six of Man Ray’s cliché-verre images.  This all-Man Ray issue included an essay by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, who, four years later, in 1929, would publish the first book on the artist and his work.  Man Ray’s association with Les Feuilles Libres had been established in 1922, when the magazine featured the first publication of a Rayograph.

This Rayograph comes originally from the collection of distinguished curator and author, Jacob Bean (1923-1992). Bean was Curator of Drawings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1960 through the early 1990s, where he concentrated on works by Italian and French masters of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and co-authored several definitive books.  A man of diverse experience, he had worked previously as a fact checker for The New Yorker magazine, as a guest curator at the Louvre, and, in the 1940s, in the pioneering gallery of Julien Levy.  It is possible Bean acquired this Rayograph at that time.  In his memoirs, Julien Levy recounted:

‘Most of my secretaries, each in turn, became involved in the life of the gallery.  They were underpaid, but for the most part devoted and loyal.  Having intimate relations with the customary heartbreaking state of my accounts, each did his or her best to interest some friends of their own in buying . . . Many of those who worked for me went on to bigger things . . . Jacob Beane [sic] later became curator of Prints and Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum' (Memoir of an Art Gallery, p. 86).

Another Rayograph from Bean’s collection was sold in these rooms in October 1993 (Sale 6468, Lot 361). 

A Rayograph of the same dimensions as the one offered here, utilizing three of the same elements—the chain, the handkerchief, and the unidentified jewel-like object—is owned by the Yale University Art Gallery (Acc. No. 1941.660).  Yale’s Rayograph is signed and dated 1924 by Man Ray and was given to the University in 1937 by Katherine Dreier.  Dreier was a founding member in 1920, with Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, of the Societé Anonyme, a group devoted to promoting new art.  The Societé Anonyme was responsible for giving many Americans their introduction to Dada, Surrealism, and other cutting-edge work of the time.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Rayographs being prepared by Steven Manford.