Man Ray

Patti Cadby Birch, New York (acquis de l'artiste)

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. This work is taped to the backing board at the upper edge and glued at the lower corners. There are some thin craquelures in the thickest and darkest paint. Apart from a light foxing in the upper right quadrant, this work is in good original condition.
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signed 'MR' and dated '41' (lower right); titled 'Leda' (lower left), gouache and brush and ink on paper. Executed in 1941.

Patti Cadby Birch, collectionneuse aux goûts éclectiques, membre du Board of Trustees du Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) à New York et supportrice du Metropolitan Museum of Art, connut également une importante activité de galeriste. De 1950 à 1955, elle dirige la galerie qui porte son nom située à l'angle de la 63ème rue et de la Madison Avenue où, entre autres oeuvres, elle présente celles de Zoran Music et de Zao Wou-Ki.

L'amitié qu'elle a pour Man Ray et la passion qu'elle porte à ses œuvres remontent à leur rencontre dans le Paris des années 30 où elle passe son adolescence. Cette relation privilégiée est à l'origine de l'acquisition d'un grand nombre de ses oeuvres parmi lesquelles, cet ensemble inédit.

Dans cette étude très aboutie, une gouache, Man Ray recourt à des formes biomorphiques stylisées et à des lignes transparentes pour représenter la rencontre de Léda et du cygne. Réalisée durant son séjour à Hollywood, entre 1940 et 1951, Léda est une image, qui d'un point de vue stylistique, procède de l'inspiration et de l'expérience surréalistes de Man Ray lors de son séjour à Paris dans les années 1920 et 1930. Quant aux formes géométriques des corps entremêlés, elles ne sont pas non plus sans évoquer les figures des mannequins de bois qui, de manière récurrente, se retrouvent dans son œuvre de la fin des années 1930 et du début des années 1940.

Alors qu'une rencontre devait bouleverser sa vie privée, le sujet de l'étude, Léda, doit avoir pris pour l'artiste un sens particulier. Le sujet en effet renvoie à l'épisode de la mythologie grecque selon lequel Zeus se serait métamorphosé en un cygne, superbe, pour rencontrer Léda (épouse de Tyndare, roi de Sparte). Peu avant de peindre le sujet, Man Ray lui-même avait rencontré Juliet Browner, une très belle et jeune danseuse de New York dont il était tombé amoureux. Inconsciemment, il doit avoir éprouvé le besoin de se transformer, du moins de modifier quelque peu son allure d'éternel adolescent, pour gagner son estime et son cœur. Man Ray et Juliet Browner n'allaient pas tarder à se marier et à passer ensemble le reste de leurs vies.

Patti Cadby Birch, a collector with an eclectic taste, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York, and a generous supporter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also had an important career as a gallery owner.  From 1950 to 1955, Patti ran the Cadby Birch Gallery on the corner of Madison Avenue and 63rd Street in New York, presenting, notably, the work of Zoran Music and Zao Wou-Ki.

Patti's friendship with Man Ray and passion for his paintings went back to their first meeting in Paris in the 1930s when she lived there as a teenager.

The warm relationship between the two that was at the heart of her acquisition of a number of works by the artist, as exemplified by this original group.

This is a study for Man Ray's Léda et le cygne (oil on canvas, 1941, Collection particulière). In this gouache variant, Man Ray portrays Leda and the swan in a natural biomorphic forms. Made by Man Ray during his eleven year stay in Hollywood from 1940 to 1951, Leda is an image that stylistically draws upon the artist's prior immersion in the Surrealist movement in Paris during the 1920s and 30s. Leda is composed of geometric objects reminiscent of wooden lay figures, that feature prominently in Man Ray's paintings of the late 1930s and early 40s.

As a result of events in his personal life, the subject may have harbored a special significance for Man Ray. According to Greek myth, Zeus transformed himself into a beautiful swan in order to secure an intimate union with Leda (wife of Tynareus, King of Sparta). Shortly before this picture was painted, Man Ray met and fell in love with Juliet Browner, a beautiful young dancer from New York. Subconsciously, he may have felt it necessary to transform himself, or make some serious adjustments to his former lifestyle as an inveterate bachelor if he were to succeed in securing her affections. Man Ray and Juliet married in 1946 and would spend the rest of their lives together.