Portrait de René Crevel

On the verso, René Char’s autograph identification: “René Crevel.”

An exceptional signed print of Man Ray’s celebrated portrait of René Crevel, originally taken around 1932. Crevel is shown frontally, in an open-collared pale shirt, stripped of the dandyism often associated with Surrealist portraiture. The face is direct, youthful and grave.

This print belongs to the later impressions supplied by Man Ray to close friends after the war. Another print of the same image appeared in the André Breton sale in 2003, no. 5106, but unsigned. To our knowledge, this is the only recorded signed print of this portrait.

Its René Char provenance is especially moving. Char had known Crevel in the Surrealist years and was deeply marked by his suicide in 1935. The brief identification on the verso — “René Crevel” — turns the photograph into an object of remembrance.

A rare signed print, from René Char’s collection, of one of Man Ray’s most powerful portraits of René Crevel.