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Lot Essay
Man Ray arrived in New York City in the first days of March 1927. The overdue occasion was a proud moment, Man Ray's first visit to his former home since taking residence in Paris in 1921. In those five years Man Ray had made a name for himself, as a fashion photographer, as a portrait photographer, as an avant-garde artist, and as a film-maker. Since the summer of 1924, his photographs had been appearing in the three editions of Vogue magazine, and before that, in the pages of Vanity Fair. In the February 1927 issue of Vogue, a page was devoted to Man Ray's recent film Emak Bakia. Man Ray would bring the film to New York for a screening, but that was not his central ambition.
Having become famous for the portrait photographs that were being widely published —and more recently for his fashion photographs—Man Ray began moving into the lucrative field of commercial and advertising photography. Apart from working with the fashion houses directly, Man Ray's clients included: Komol (hair dye), Arlette Bernard (cosmetics), Elizabeth Arden (skincare), and Pond's (cosmetics and beauty products).
While in New York City that spring, Man Ray would produce a series of images for Pond's featuring the jars of Pond's Cold Cream, Pond's Vanishing Cream, and the hands of a female model. A series of negatives, and contact prints have survived, including the three unique prints included here, but it is not yet firmly known whether the project resulted in any of the images being used and published. However, we can firmly date the project, and the nature of the project.
Notes kept by Man Ray at the time, include a handwritten list of businesses in the hand of Man Ray. One pencil notation reads "For Ads / Ponds Cream." This document dates from late March 1927, while Man Ray was still in New York. Pond's was an American company originally founded in 1849 by a pharmacist in Utica, New York, but by the 1920s its brand had grown and gone upscale through celebrity endorsements, even including from European royalty visiting America. Pond’s office responsible for sales, marketing, and advertising was in New York City.
Much attention has rightly been devoted to Man Ray's fashion photographs, indeed these three contact prints appear in print in for the first time in the exhibition catalogue 'Man Ray In Fashion', based on the early research of John Esten. These three unique prints were featured in the touring exhibition (from 1990 to 1992) and published in its catalogue. Juliet Man Ray had loaned these prints for the exhibition tour, thus being separated from the archive of Man Ray's contact prints. As a result, the prints did not go to the Fonds Man Ray, at the Centre Pompidou, as part of the 1994 dation. Instead these prints were auctioned in the Juliet Man Ray estate sale of 1995.
The corresponding original negatives are held at the Fonds Man Ray, Centre Pompidou. Inventory Accession: AM 1994-393 (1162), AM 1994-393 (1156), and AM 1994-393 (1160). Five additional related negatives are held at the Fonds Man Ray, as are four related contact prints. No enlargements are known.
Steven Manford, Man Ray Research Scholar, has examined this photograph for Christie's, and has provided original research. Documentation on this object is held by the Manford Archive of Man Ray Photographs and Rayographs, and the Manford Inventory of Man Ray Stamps.
Having become famous for the portrait photographs that were being widely published —and more recently for his fashion photographs—Man Ray began moving into the lucrative field of commercial and advertising photography. Apart from working with the fashion houses directly, Man Ray's clients included: Komol (hair dye), Arlette Bernard (cosmetics), Elizabeth Arden (skincare), and Pond's (cosmetics and beauty products).
While in New York City that spring, Man Ray would produce a series of images for Pond's featuring the jars of Pond's Cold Cream, Pond's Vanishing Cream, and the hands of a female model. A series of negatives, and contact prints have survived, including the three unique prints included here, but it is not yet firmly known whether the project resulted in any of the images being used and published. However, we can firmly date the project, and the nature of the project.
Notes kept by Man Ray at the time, include a handwritten list of businesses in the hand of Man Ray. One pencil notation reads "For Ads / Ponds Cream." This document dates from late March 1927, while Man Ray was still in New York. Pond's was an American company originally founded in 1849 by a pharmacist in Utica, New York, but by the 1920s its brand had grown and gone upscale through celebrity endorsements, even including from European royalty visiting America. Pond’s office responsible for sales, marketing, and advertising was in New York City.
Much attention has rightly been devoted to Man Ray's fashion photographs, indeed these three contact prints appear in print in for the first time in the exhibition catalogue 'Man Ray In Fashion', based on the early research of John Esten. These three unique prints were featured in the touring exhibition (from 1990 to 1992) and published in its catalogue. Juliet Man Ray had loaned these prints for the exhibition tour, thus being separated from the archive of Man Ray's contact prints. As a result, the prints did not go to the Fonds Man Ray, at the Centre Pompidou, as part of the 1994 dation. Instead these prints were auctioned in the Juliet Man Ray estate sale of 1995.
The corresponding original negatives are held at the Fonds Man Ray, Centre Pompidou. Inventory Accession: AM 1994-393 (1162), AM 1994-393 (1156), and AM 1994-393 (1160). Five additional related negatives are held at the Fonds Man Ray, as are four related contact prints. No enlargements are known.
Steven Manford, Man Ray Research Scholar, has examined this photograph for Christie's, and has provided original research. Documentation on this object is held by the Manford Archive of Man Ray Photographs and Rayographs, and the Manford Inventory of Man Ray Stamps.