Brassaï
'La fille au billard russe, Paris'
No reserve
Lot Closed
December 18, 07:14 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Brassaï
1899 - 1984
gelatin silver print, signed and editioned '22/30' in ink in the margin, signed, titled, dated and editioned in ink and with the with the photographer's '81 Faubourg St.-Jacques, Paris 14eme, Tel. 707.23.41', and 'Tirage de l'Auteur' studio stamps on the reverse, framed, 1933, printed in the 1970s
image: 12⅛ by 8¾ in. (30.8 by 22.2 cm.)
frame: 19⅞ by 16⅛ in. (50.5 by 41 cm.)
Collection of Anselm and Marjorie Talalay
Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 28 February 2012, Sale 2270, Lot 31
Brassaï (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968), p. 35
Brassaï: A Major Exhibition (London: The Photographer's Gallery, 1979), p. 13
Brassaï: Secret Paris of the 30’s (New York, 1976), unpaginated
Ann Wilkes Tucker, Richard Howard, and Avis Berman, Brassaï: The Eye of Paris (The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1999), p. 141
Alain Sayag and Annick Lionel-Marie, eds., Brassaï: The Monograph (Boston, 2000), p. 91 (variant)
“I felt at the time that this underground world represented Paris at (…) its most authentic, that in these colorful faces of its underworld there had been preserved, from age to age, almost without alteration, the folklore of its most remote past” (The Secret Paris of the 30s, unpaginated).
Brassaï captured the essence of Parisian nightlife of the 1930s. After establishing himself as a regular within these oftentimes dangerous clubs, he earned the trust of the other patrons. That relationship is evident in 'La fille au billard russe, Paris,' where the subject is shown standing proudly and unashamed over a billiards table, making assertive eye contact. The symmetries of heavy makeup on her lips and eyebrows contribute to this captivating portrait.
Other prints of 'La fille au billard russe, Paris' are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern, New York, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
