Man Ray

the photographer's monogram and initials in pencil on the image, his 'Man Ray, Paris' stamp (Manford M-33) on the reverse, early 1930s

Sotheby's London, 14 April 1989, Sale 1041, Lot 381

Acquired by the present owner from the above

This photograph is on double-weight paper with lush warm-gray tones and a very matte surface. Man Ray's monogram, consisting of his initials connected by a straight line at their tops, is written just to the right of center on the bottom edge. The initials appear in the lower right corner. The photograph is in very good condition. There is a tiny crease in the lower right corner which has broken the emulsion slightly. An old finger print near the lower left corner has become silvered over time, and can now be seen when the print is examined very closely in raking light. The proper orientation of this image is ambiguous. The two initials on the image indicate that it should be viewed as a horizontal image. The orientation of the stamp on the reverse indicates that it should be viewed as a vertical, with Lee Miller's visage topmost. When this print was illustrated in the 1989 Sotheby's London catalogue, it was reproduced as a vertical.
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 surreal and sensual image shows Man Ray's lover and muse, Lee Miller, with an unidentified woman.  Man Ray had met the young and beautiful American Lee Miller in Paris in 1929, and she became his studio assistant and then his lover.  A fine photographer in her own right, Miller was linked with Man Ray for three years, a tumultuous period in which she inspired some of Man Ray's most famous photographs and paintings.  The photograph offered here, in which the opposing faces of Miller and her companion fill the frame, was cropped from a larger negative.  The full version of the negative, in the Man Ray Trust, shows significantly more of the bed or couch upon which the lower figures lies and the surrounding room.  Man Ray was adept at improving upon his own negatives, and his tight and precise cropping in this print creates an energy and immediacy not present in the original composition. 

As is typical of Man Ray's best work, this photograph is more complex than it would appear to be at first glance.  The photograph's undeniable eroticism is foremost, and this picture takes its place within a body of Man Ray's work dealing with physical, sometimes overtly erotic, contact between women.  Yet despite the proximity of the two models, the sang-froid in Miller's face lends a sinister tinge to their contact and heightens the picture's quiet drama, which is further magnified by Man Ray's close cropping. 

While little-known, and apparently not reproduced in the Man Ray literature, this powerful photograph takes its place within the context of a certain group of Man Ray's photographs made around the same time.  The most obvious comparison is to Le Baiser (Schwarz, pl. 212), a similarly close-cropped image in which Lee Miller's heavily rouged lips approach, but do not touch, the lips of another woman.  Man Ray was sufficiently inspired by his own photograph to produce versions of the image in several different media in the subsequent decades (cf. ibid., pls. 208-11).  Mention here should also be made of Man Ray's quietly erotic image, Nusch and Sonia (Photography and Its Double, p. 122) made in 1935, and the nude studies he made of his girlfriend Ady and Nusch Eluard in 1937 (ibid., p. 99).  That year also saw the completion of Lesbiennes, a small painting of two women passionately entwined.  Lips, too—especially Lee Miller's lips—were clearly a fascination for Man Ray, as evidenced by the present image and Le Baiser.  It is Miller's lips that are famously portrayed, sailing like a surreal crimson dirigible in a clouded sky, in Man Ray's iconic painting of 1934, A l'heure de l'observatoire—Les amoureux.