It is one of the most recognisable images of the surrealist movement: a black and white photograph by Man Ray of Kiki de Montparnasse with f-shaped sound holes painted on her back representing a violin.
Le Violon d’Ingres, which was produced in 1924 and signed by the US artist, set a record for the most expensive photograph when it sold for $12.4m (£9.8m) at auction in New York in 2022.
On Thursday, one of three prints made in 1970 from the original negative sold in Paris as part of an auction of 200 Man Ray works, covering all aspects of his creative production, from a collection of one of his close friends.
The Violon d’Ingres print was produced under the supervision of Man Ray. After vigorous bidding, the photograph sold for €120,000 (£102,000), double the upper range of the €40,000-€60,000 catalogue estimate.
Man Ray’s paintings, designs and sculptures prompted vigorous bidding but a number of his photographic prints failed to reach the auctioneer’s lowest estimates. The sale, which lasted more than five and a half hours, raised an estimated €3.65m (£3.19m).
Other photographs that came under the hammer included several self-portraits and others featuring major literary and artistic figures, including Jean Cocteau, Louis Aragon, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust on his deathbed, James Joyce, Elsa Schiaparelli and Catherine Deneuve.
Elodie Morel-Bazin, the European head of photography at the auctioneers Christie’s, said the range of work on sale was “marvellous”, adding: “There isn’t any other complete collections representing the whole range of Man Ray’s work like this and it’s the first to be sold by someone who actually knew him.
“It covers all the techniques he used and the art he produced through all periods of his life.”
Of the Violon d’Ingres print, Morel-Bazin said: “He wanted to use a different technique so it’s completely different from the 1924 vintage print but is still one of the most iconic images in the world.”
The collection was amassed by Marion Meyer, the president of the International May Ray Association, who met the artist in Paris in the 1960s and became part of his inner circle. Man Ray had returned from Hollywood in 1951 with his wife, Juliet, and settled in an old sculptor’s studio in the Latin Quarter.
Meyer was married to Marcel Zerbib, the artist’s editor, close friend and chess partner. “His [Man Ray’s] photographs were highly sought-after, but not his paintings, objects or drawings, and those were the works I really loved and wanted to preserve,” she said.
Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, Man Ray established his career in US modernism in the 1910s before moving from New York to Paris a decade later and then splitting his time between the two cities. He died in Paris in November 1976 after a long career that spanned photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and other mediums.
The original Le Violon d’Ingres photograph was published in June 1924 on the front cover of the surrealist magazine Littérature, which was edited by André Breton. Man Ray was fascinated by the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and the photograph was a reference to Ingres’s languorous nudes and his hobby of playing the violin when not painting. Le violon d’Ingres is a French idiom meaning “hobby”.
Many of the lots were sold for well over the catalogue estimate. The sculpture Pain Peint (painted bread) featuring two blue baguettes was listed at €30,000 but sold for €140,000, while a chess set estimated at €30,000 sold for €160,0000. A gelatin silver print of Deneuve in 1968, wearing earrings designed by Man Ray, reached €32,000, more than double the estimate, while a print of a 1924 self-portrait struggled to reach €5,000.
The 1937 painting Maime quand i qua domi i qua ri, one of the star lots of the auction, sold for €160,000, €40,000 below the upper estimate.
After Man Ray’s death, Juliet was inundated with requests for certification of his work. Meyer, whom the artist had asked to look after his wife, set up the international association to document his art. “It has been an enormous project, but it is done now,” she said. “There is very little out there that we don’t know about.
“For almost 60 years I’ve devoted my life to Man Ray, and I don’t feel he needs me any more. It’s done, I’ve fulfilled my goal.”
