If you've read the outstanding Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks, then you likely know that the famed surrealist Man Ray once sent Louise Brooks a small painting. That painting has just gone to auction at Sothebys in New York City. (While the paining is on display at Sothebys gallery in NYC, the auction itself is also being held online. The link to the auction can be found HERE.)
According to the Sothebys' auction page, "Andrew Strauss and Timothy Baum of the Man Ray Expertise Committee have confirmed the authenticity of this work under reference 00468-P-2025 and that it will be included in the Catalogue of Paintings of Man Ray, currently in preparation."
Man Ray was something of a fan of Louise Brooks. According to the Paris biography, the artist "was struck by Brooks's face" when he saw it in magazines during the filming of Prix de Beaute." And, he never forgot her. [To imagine one of the covers Man Ray might have seen, be sure and check out this gallery page of French magazine covers featuring Louise Brooks circa 1929 / 1930 on the Louise Brooks Society website.]
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| Louise Brooks' image on display in Paris in 1930 |
The artist and the actress met for the first time in late 1958, when Brooks was in Paris for a retrospective of her films. According to the Paris biography, "On one occasion, she met Man Ray, the surrealist artist-photographer, who had long admired her and soon sent her, upon her return to the States, one of his small abstractions." That painting hung on the wall of Brooks' bedroom apartment in Rochester, New York until the time of her death in 1985, when it was willed to her heirs. The Estate has had the painting in their possession these 40 years, and have now decided to sell it.
I've long wondered... why would a then very famous artist send a then somewhat forgotten silent film star one of his newest paintings? I think the answer is nostalgia, that he once was and may still have been somewhat smitten with Brooks - especially her look, and what she represented to the artist, not to mention her resemblance to his one-time paramour Alice Prin (aka Kiki de Montparnasse), who Man Ray described in his autobiography as "beautiful" and having "the hairdo then in fashion among the smart women, short cut with bangs low on the forehead." (Coincidentally, Man Ray and Kiki had one of their first dates in a movie theater, when they held hands. I wonder what film they saw?) As Robert Benayoun, a surrealist historian and the one-time editor of the French film magazine Positif told Barry Paris, "The surrealists were always in love with her... Man Ray loved that kind of face and image."
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| (Left) A 1928 newspaper ad featuring a Man Ray flm and a Louise Brooks film, and (Right) the lovely Kiki de Montparnasse |
Here is a picture of the reverse of the painting, which is inscribed in the artist's hand, "for Louise Brooks a souvenir of Man Ray Paris 1958". To me, it is a somewhat curious inscription. This small but extravagant gift is described not as a souvenir of an occasion, or of a place, or of their meeting -- but as a souvenir of a person - the artist.
For more about "Louise Brooks and the Surrealists", be sure and check out a this page on the subject on the Louise Brooks Society website.
Also, check out this earlier Louise Brooks Society blog, "The Indestructible Lee Miller and the Destructible Louise Brooks," from December 13th of last year. It details the time that a Man Ray film and a Louise Brooks film shared the same bill at the Ursulines theater (shown above) in Paris in 1928!
THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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