Les mains libres
Year: 1937
Author: Paul Éluard (1895 - 1952)
Artist: Man Ray (1890 - 1976)
Publisher: Jeanne Bucher
When Man Ray first set foot in Paris on 14 July 1921, poet Paul Éluard was already sharing a table with the Surrealists Breton, Aragon and Soupault at the café Certà, where all young Dadaists and Surrealists came together and engaged in discussions. Éluard was then no longer the lonely poet tortured by desperate loves and poor health. Throughout the tumultuous 1920s, he proved himself able to develop quickly into a committed poet of the Surrealist movement. Unfortunately for Éluard, the crises of loneliness did not go away: Salvador Dalí stole his childhood sweetheart Gala (Helena Diakonova) away from him.
Rayographies
The very night he arrived in Paris, Man Ray was introduced to Éluard and the other Surrealists by his friend Marcel Duchamp. But it wasn't until the period 1934-1939 that an intimate friendship was to develop between the poet and the American artist.
Like every other child, Man Ray began to paint at the age of five, but he claims to have been admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts when he was seven. He soon did more than painting alone. Experiments with new disciplines and objects, aided by luck, made him famous thanks to his invention of a photographic process, Rayographies, in which objects are placed on photo paper and leave their imprint during the developing process.
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Titelpagina met opdracht van Man Ray aan Florence Meyer
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Illustratie door Man Ray (p. 114)
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Gedicht door Paul Éluard (p.115)
Freedom: hands free, free play
Less famous are the 54 drawings by Man Ray from Les mains libres, which were 'illustrated' by Éluard with mostly short but powerful poems. Éluard's simple and elementary vocabulary made him the right person to illustrate Man Ray's graphic artworks, leaving the reader the freedom to create a personal vision of both text and image. One of the poems is called 'History of Science' and begins as follows:
You fear man.
Beware of fire.
and ends with:
Continually invent fire
Air earth and water
His children.
'Freedom' is a key theme here both for Man Ray and for Éluard. The title Les main libres means not only 'hands free' but also the 'free play' of the imagination, the artist's hand and the poet's mind. The collection ends with two portraits of Marquis de Sade, accompanied by two polemical poems. The edition also contains ten portraits and drawings without poems, titled 'Portraits' and 'Details'.
This copy of Les mains libres also contains a hand-written dedication from Man Ray to his pupil-photographer Florence Meyer. She played the violin, studied dancing and acting, but became successful as a portrait photographer of contemporary celebrities, like Judy Garland, Vladimir Horowitz and Thomas Mann. She later married the actor Oscar Homolka.
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Portret van De Sade door Man Ray (p. 174)
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Portret van Paul Éluard door Man Ray
Bibliografische beschrijving
Description: Les mains libres : dessins / Man Ray ; illustrés par les poèmes de Paul Éluard. - Paris: Jeanne Bucher, 1937. - 176 p., [14] bl. pl. : ill. ; 29 cm
Printer: Henri Jourde (Paris)
Edition: 675 copies
This copy: Number 316 of 650 on Chester vergé
Note: With a handwritten dedication by Man Ray to Florence Meyer.
Bibliography: Bénézit 9-120 ; Hogben 104 ; Monod 4217
Shelfmark: KW Koopm K 306
References
- Paul van Capelleveen, Sophie Ham, Jordy Joubij, Voices and visions. The Koopman Collection and the Art of the French Book. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands; Zwolle, Waanders, 2009
- Paul van Capelleveen, Sophie Ham, Jordy Joubij, Voix et visions. La Collection Koopman et l'Art du Livre français. La Haye, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Bibliothèque nationale des Pays-Bas; Zwolle, Waanders, 2009
- Jean-Charles Gateau, Paul Éluard et la peinture surréaliste (1910-1939). Genève, Droz, 1983
- Jean-Charles Gateau, 'Paul Éluard', in: Dictionnaire de poésie de Baudelaire à nos jours. Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2001, p. 232-238
- Annick Lionel-Marie, Paul Éluard et ses amis peintres, 1895-1952. Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1982
- Man Ray. Marina Vanci-Perahim (Red.). New York, Cameo/Abrams, 1998
- Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray: Rigour of imagination. London, Thames & Hudson, 1977
- Violaine Vanoyeke, Paul Éluard: Le poète de la liberté. Paris, Julliard, 1995