Pierre Dubreuil

oil print, the photographer’s monogram and date on the image, signed, titled, and annotated ‘Bruxelles,’ ‘Oil print,’ ‘London, Salon,’ and ‘M. S. L. P.' and 'M. C. P. S. A.’ in ink and with The Museum of Science and Industry's collection stamp, label, and accession number and other notations in red and blue crayon on the reverse, 1929

The photographer to Dr. Max Thorek

Gift of Dr. Max Thorek to The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, 1935

Sotheby’s New York, 11 October 2005, Sale 8115, Lot 111

Chicago, Museum of Science and Industry, Imagination to Image, April - September 1999 and traveling thereafter to:

Milwaukee, Marquette University, The Haggerty Museum of Art, September - December 2000;  

The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, January - April 2001

It is believed that this print of The Aviator, also known as Titan du Ciel, is likely one of three prints of the image extant.  Only one other print of this image has appeared at auction, sold in these rooms in April 2008.   

During Pierre Dubreuil’s lifetime, a print of this image was exhibited in the retrospective of the photographer’s work at the Royal Photographic Society, London, in 1935.  It was also featured in the two major modern Dubreuil exhibitions: Pierre Dubreuil, Photographs 1896–1935 at the Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1987; and Pierre Dubreuil Rediscovered, at The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, in 1988, and traveling to Alliance Française, New York, and The Detroit Institute of Arts, in 1989-90.