Man Ray friend to sell collection of 200 works including ‘iconic’ image
It is one of the most recognisable images of the surrealist movement: a black-and-white photograph by Man Ray of Kiki de Montparnasse with fshaped sound holes painted on her back representing a violin.
Le Violon d’Ingres, which was produced in 1924 and signed by the US artist, set a record for the most expensive photograph when it sold for $12.4m (£9.8m) at auction in New York in 2022.
One of three prints made in 1970 from the original negative will go under the hammer in Paris on Thursday as part of an auction of 200 Man Ray works covering all aspects of his creative production from a collection of one of his close friends.
Elodie Morel-Bazin, the European head of photography at the auctioneers Christie’s, said the range of the work on sale was “marvellous”, adding: “There isn’t any other complete collections representing the whole range of Man Ray’s work like this and it’s the first to be sold by someone who actually knew him.”
She said lot 338, the Violon d’Ingres print, which has been given a catalogue estimate of €40,000-€60,000 (£34,200-£51,400), was produced under the supervision of Man Ray.
“He wanted to use a different technique so it’s completely different from the 1924 vintage print but is still one of the most iconic images in the world,” Morel-Bazin said.
Other photographs being sold include several self-portraits and others featuring major literary and artistic figures including Jean Cocteau, Louis Aragon, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust – on his deathbed – James Joyce, Elsa Schiaparelli and Catherine Deneuve.
The collection was amassed by Marion Meyer, the president of the
International May Ray Association, who met the artist in Paris in the 1960s and became part of his inner circle. Man Ray had returned from Hollywood in 1951 with his wife, Juliet, and had settled in an old sculptor’s studio in the Latin Quarter.
Meyer was married to Marcel Zerbib, the artist’s editor, close friend and chess partner. “His [Man Ray’s] photographs were highly sought-after, but not his paintings, objects or drawings, and those were the works I really loved and wanted to preserve,” she said.
Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, Man Ray established his career in US modernism in the 1910s before moving from New York to Paris a decade later and then splitting his time between the two cities. He died in Paris in November 1976 after a long career that spanned photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and other mediums.
The original Le Violon d’Ingres photograph was published in June 1924 on the front cover of the surrealist magazine Littérature, which was edited by André Breton. Man Ray was fascinated by the painter Jean-AugusteDominique Ingres and the photograph was a reference to Ingres’s languorous nudes and his hobby of playing the violin when not painting. Le violon d’Ingres is a French idiom meaning “hobby”.
After Man Ray’s death, Juliet was inundated with requests for certification of his work. Meyer, whom the artist had asked to look after his wife, set up the international association to document his art. “It has been an enormous project, but it is done now,” she said. “There is very little out there that we don’t know about.”
“For almost 60 years I’ve devoted my life to Man Ray, and I don’t feel he needs me any more. It’s done, I’ve fulfilled my goal,” Meyer added.