Lot 3

This study by Brancusi is one of a group discovered in Paris in the late 1970s. One of the finest and most complex examples from the artist's large body of photographs, the print is in an unusually large format and shows two Brancusi sculptures, Enfant Dormant, 1906, in colored plaster (now in the Atelier Brancusi of the Musée national d'art moderne, Paris) and Le Nouveau Né, 1920, in white marble (now in the collection of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm). Although Brancusi had always photographed his sculpture from the beginning of his career, it was only in the 1920s that he became excited about making prints with a more profound vision. He asked Man Ray to help him choose a new camera and a steady tripod, although he rejected advice to send his negatives out to be developed by a commercial laboratory and instead built a darkroom in the corner of his studio.

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)

Two Sculptures: 'Le Nouveau Né II', 1920 and 'L'Enfant Dormant', 1906, 1923

Details

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Two Sculptures: 'Le Nouveau Né II', 1920 and 'L'Enfant Dormant', 1906, 1923
gelatin silver print, printed 1930s
credit blindstamp (on the recto); annotation 'H.P. Roché' in an unknown hand in ink (on the verso)
image/sheet: 11¾ x 15¾in. (29.8 x 40cm.)

Literature

Modernist Masterworks to 1925 from 'the deLIGHTed eye', A Private Collection, International Center of Photography, New York, 1985, p. 14

Exhibited

Modernist Masterworks to 1925 from 'the deLIGHTed eye', A Private Collection, International Center of Photography, New York, May 15-June 16, 1985

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Lot Essay

Henri-Pierre Roché, whose name is inscribed on the reverse of this print, is rarely referenced today, but he was nonetheless a highly significant figure in the story of the Paris avant-garde of the early 20th century. Roché (1879-1959) was an author, best known for the novel Jules et Jim. Urbane, intellectually sophisticated, and with a sure eye for true invention and integrity in art, he played an important role in the Paris art scene during the birth of modernism. As a refined connoisseur, adviser, and agent, he provided counsel and support to key players in this milieu -- he worked with the great collector Jacques Doucet, introduced Gertrude Stein to Picasso, financed Man Ray's first studio, befriended and supported Brancusi, and acted as cultural guide to the young Indian Prince destined, as Maharaja of Indore, to earn a reputation as a notable patron of modern art and architecture. It was Roché, typically, who stimulated the Prince's passion for the sculptures of Brancusi.

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