signed and dated 1953- graphite on paper 21×14 cm
Provenance and literature
Provenance: Galerie Mira Jacob, Paris
(Mira Jacob was also the owner of Bateau-Lavoir, Montmartre)
About the artist
From the 1930s until his death, Bellmer devoted himself exclusively to erotic depictions of the female body. Whether in drawings, sculptures, photographs or prints, the focus was always on the eroticised image of an often violated female body. Due to the constant repetition of this theme, he was attributed with all manner of neurotic disorders, ranging from fetishism and voyeurism, through sadomasochism, to paedophilia, whilst others labelled his work purely as surrealism and ‘anarchistic erotic stagings’.
In 1933, Bellmer constructed fetishistic dolls from parts of shop window mannequins, combined with wood, metal and plaster – as whole bodies or parts thereof. He sent the photographs he took of these dolls in ever-changing poses to Paul Éluard and André Breton in Paris. In 1934, his famous photo series “La poupée” appeared in the magazine Minotaure, and was also exhibited in 1935/1936 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of a Surrealist exhibition. In 1938, he emigrated to Paris, where he continued to work on his doll theme. In 1949, he published the photo series ‘Die Spiele der Puppe’.