Man Ray, North American, 1890 - 1976
Title: James Joyce, 1922
Date: c.1932
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
12.3 x 9 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 2019
Object Number: NGI.2019.225
DescriptionThis portrait of the Irish novelist, poet and teacher James Joyce, photographed by Man Ray, a notable visual artist of the early to mid-20th century, represents a very important moment in both Irish literary and visual art history. In 1922, Shakespeare and Company publishers sent James Joyce to Man Ray to have press photographs made for the imminent release of Ulysses. Although Man Ray remembered that Joyce "seemed to consider the sitting a terrible nuisance," he managed to secure this striking likeness of the author.
ProvenanceEdwynn Houk Gallery, New York; Anon. sale, Phillips, New York, 1 April 2014, lot 10; acquired at the baove sale; purchased, Christie's, London, The Landscape of a Mind Sale, 20 June 2019, lot 547
Inscriptionon verso (stamp): Man Ray 31 Rue Campagne Premiere Paris XIV