Bonhams Surrealist sale in Paris

Paris – La Révolution Surréaliste sale at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr on 29 March 2023 in Paris will supply a wide array of European work and artistic endeavors from the surrealist motion. Among the many highlights are images by Man Ray from the Assortment of Jacqueline Barsotti-Goddard, showcasing his distinctive experimental images abilities and method. Utterly contemporary to the market and beforehand unseen in public, the gathering was gifted by Man Ray to Jacqueline over the course of a few years in recognition of their lengthy friendship and inventive collaborations.

Man Ray (1890-1976), an American visible artist who lived primarily in Paris, was one of many first exponents of Dada in New York within the 1910s. Dadaism’s eccentricity and irrationality gave method to Surrealism’s fantasy and incongruity not lengthy after he arrived in Paris in 1921. Man Ray carved out a spot for himself within the Surrealist group by his creative use of the photographic medium, giving the motion a particular visible identification that was deeply rooted in literary and psychoanalytic philosophy. Categorised as “the poet who writes with mild”, he has “the top of a magic lantern”, in accordance with André Breton – whose portrait, a solarised gelatin silver print, is featured within the forthcoming public sale (estimate: €10,000-15,000).

Man Ray, Untitled (André Breton), circa 1929. Estimate: €10,000-15,000. Photograph: Bonhams

Man Ray performed with the photographic medium and photographed his muse Jacqueline Goddard many instances. A few of these portraits are a part of the Parisian sale reminiscent of an early Nineteen Thirties work, Portrait of Jacqueline (estimate: €8,000-12,000) or a Portrait of Lee Miller, his former mistress, a solarised gelatin silver contact print, can also be provided on the market with an estimate of €7,000-10,000.

Hannah Noel-Smith, Head of UK & Europe Impressionist & Fashionable Artwork, commented: “We’re delighted to offer this group of works from Jacqueline’s private assortment. Utterly contemporary to the market and beforehand unseen in public, the gathering was gifted by Man Ray to Jacqueline over the course of a few years in recognition of their lengthy friendship and inventive collaborations.”

Born to a French mom and an Italian father, Jacqueline Goddard, born Barsotti (1911-2003), arrived in Montparnasse on the age of 17. She frequented La Coupole and different Parisian venues of the modern artists. She grew to become an in depth buddy of Man Ray and his former mistress Kiki de Montparnasse and met artists reminiscent of Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, and writers together with Georges Simenon – who used Jacqueline as a personality in considered one of his novels, (and whom she notably disliked). Jacqueline had a distinctively fashionable look, with a Grecian profile, lengthy neck and cropped, tousled hair. As her magnificence was legendary in Montparnasse, she grew to become a favoured artist’s mannequin in Paris through the Twenties and Nineteen Thirties. Generally known as the ‘Muse of Muses’, she labored intently with Léonard Foujita, André Derain, Moïse Kisling, Picasso, Matisse, and Giacometti.

Jacqueline was one of many key feminine figures of the École de Paris and rising Surrealist motion, having fun with mutually inventive partnerships with the artists that she modelled for. One in all Jacqueline’s best partnerships was with the American artist, Man Ray. They met on the finish of the Twenties when Man Ray requested Jacqueline to star because the heroine of a brief movie he was producing. Jacqueline would go on to develop into considered one of his most popular topics and is immortalised in a lot of his most well-known images. In a single occasion, Jacqueline was the one who really pressed the button of the digicam for Man Ray’s iconic Suicide self-portrait of 1932. In a dedication to Jacqueline a few years later, Man Ray wrote the next:

“To probably the most stunning lady I’ve ever photographed.
Not true and never flattering to the others,
To the one one I didn’t sleep with.
Too compromising for the others who could have achieved so.
To probably the most inspiring one?
A praise for me, however an ideal method of being impolite to others.
You learn this then, With all my love.” Man Ray

Man Ray couldn’t be happy with a single profession, he was a hybrid artist. “In no matter kind it’s lastly offered, by a drawing, by a portray, by {a photograph}, or by the item itself in its authentic materials and in its authentic dimensions, it’s designed to amuse, bewilder, annoy or to encourage reflection, however to not arouse admiration for any technical excellence often searched for in artistic endeavors” mentioned Man Ray in 1944.

Along with Man Ray’s images from the gathering of Jacqueline Barsotti-Goddard, the La Révolution Surréaliste sale will showcase etchings, drawings, and work by Man Ray, reminiscent of 

La bonne route, an oil on canvas laid on Masonite painted in 1953 by the artist (estimate: €8,000-12,000). Different highlights embrace Ache peint, an exhibition catalogue from 1973 with an estimate of €2,500-3,500 and Les mains libres, first version, restricted to 650 copies, presentation copy inscribed by the artist from 1937 by Man Ray and Paul Eluard, with an estimate of €2,000-3,000.