Elsa Schiaparelli
(1938)
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
(23.7 × 17.9 cm)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2024
© Man Ray Trust. ADAGP/Copyright Agency
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
As a photographer working in Paris from 1921 to 1939, Man Ray documented life in avant-garde artistic circles in the French capital between the wars and was an active member of the Surrealist movement. He was highly inventive, in terms of both composition and darkroom techniques during this period. Man Ray displays his unique experimentation in image-making in this portrait of the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli – her skin appears mottled, as if overlaid with a fine material or mesh, creating an uncanny effect.