Man Ray

the photographer's '31 bis, Rue Campagne Première' studio stamp (Manford M3), crossed out and annotated 'return to 2 bis rue Férou' in ink, and with title, date, credit, and reduction notations in pencil and ink on the reverse, framed, a Jane Corkin Gallery label on the reverse, 1930

Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto, 1984

Variant cropping:

Man Ray 1890-1976 (Vienna: KunstHausWien, 1996), p. 49

Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais and Alain Sayag, eds., Man Ray: Photography and Its Double (Paris: Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1998), p. 100

This photograph is on double-weight paper with a velvety, nearly matte surface. The luminosity of Lee Miller's skin is rendered with a wide range of subtle tonalities. A fine patina of age-appropriate silvering in the dark areas of the print is visible when it is examined in raking light. There is a pen-point-sized rust-colored deposit of indeterminate nature on the sitter's neck. Deposits of the photographer's original retouching are visible upon close inspection, most notably in the dark background to the right of the sitter. Subtle discoloration in the sitter’s hairline is only visible upon extremely close examination. The print is trimmed to the image. There is some minuscule chipping at the edges, and the corners are bumped. The tips of the upper corners are sharply creased, with some resultant loss of emulsion; these creases appear to have been reinforced or repaired on the reverse. There is soiling along the lower edge near the right corner of the print. On the reverse of the print are the following notations in an unidentified hand: 'Lee Miller,' '93' [crossed out], '73' [crossed out], and '75' [in ink]; and '1930,' '(Lee Miller, portrait par Man Ray,' '140 m/m brevt,' and '181 m/m hoch' [in pencil]. The reverse of the print is lightly soiled.
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