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Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) La Poupée, c.1936

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Gelatin silver print, printed c.1936, 12.2x8.2cm (illust. actual size). Provenance: Gabrielle Keiller; Alessandra and Simon Wilson, c.1980. Gabrielle Keiller (1908-1995) formed a major collection of Dada and Surrealist art and literature. She was on the advisory committee of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from 1978 to 1985 and bequeathed to the Gallery a collection of 136 paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, as well as many manuscripts and books. The Gabrielle Keiller Library in the Dean Gallery is devoted to the archival material related to what now forms one of the greatest international collections of Dada and Surrealist work. The Library includes examples of both Hans Bellmer's Die Puppe, 1934 and La Poupée, 1936. This rare photograph is the same image as appears as plate 8 in both the 1934 edition (size 9 x 5.5cm) and the 1936 (size 11.6 x 7.7cm) but is larger than both of these. It seems likely that it is one of the extra prints in different sizes that Bellmer is known to have made for friends after his arrival in Paris in 1935. The lot includes a simple note on Gabrielle Keiller's headed paper, unsigned but in her hand saying 'A Happy Christmas to Sandra and Simon'. Simon Wilson OBE was a Tate curator from 1967 until his retirement in 2002. He is the author of Surrealist Painting, London, Phaidon 1998. Literaure: Antique Collectors' Club, Easthampton, Cowling, Elizabeth, Surrealism and After: the Gabrielle Keiller Collection.

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