MAN RAY; Paul ELUARD ( illustrator ). Les mains libres.

MAN RAY; Paul ELUARD ( illustrator ). Les mains libres.MAN RAY; Paul ELUARD (illustrator). Les mains libres. Paris: Jeanne Bucher 1937 4to. Original pictorial red and white wrappers, lettered in red to spine; pp. 176, [30], with pictorial title and 66 full page illustrations by Man Ray; pages partially uncut; very minor creasing to lower corners and spine a little frayed otherwise near fine copy; authors presentation inscription to half title Georges Mouton trs amicalement, Paul Eluard (see below). First

MAN RAY; Paul ELUARD (illustrator). Les mains libres. Paris: Jeanne Bucher 1937

4to. Original pictorial red and white wrappers, lettered in red to spine; pp. 176, [30], with pictorial title and 66 full-page illustrations by Man Ray; pages partially uncut; very minor creasing to lower corners and spine a little frayed otherwise near fine copy; author’s presentation inscription to half-title ‘à Georges Mouton très amicalement, Paul Eluard’ (see below).

First edition, number 319 of 650 copies printed on Chester vergé of a total edition of 675 copies, presented by Eluard to the Surrealist writer Georges Mouton.

Les mains libres is the second collaborative work between Man Ray, a pioneer of the Surrealist movement, and Paul Eluard, poet and one of the movement’s founders. During the 1930s, Man Ray made numerous drawings in Paris and the South of France. He shared them with Eluard, who requested to keep them temporarily. Adhering to the Surrealist tradition, the poet ‘illustrates’ the images, not the opposite: upon Man Ray’s return, Eluard had paired each drawing with a poem. This collaboration resulted in the publication of Les mains libres, featuring fifty-four illustrations by Man Ray facing as many poems by Eluard, and three appendices, ‘Sade’, ‘Portraits’, and ‘Details’, which include Man Ray’s portraits of Pablo Picasso, André Breton, and Eluard.

Provenance: This copy was presented by Eluard to the writer Goerge Mouton. Connected to Surrealist circles in the 1930s, Mouton was a member of the Contre-Attaque group led by Georges Bataille and André Breton during 1935-1936.

SKU: 2120581