Etching and aquatint, 1923/1971. 187x152 mm; 7 3/8x6 inches, full margins (full sheet 11 x 15 inches). Signed and numbered 79/125 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression, printed and published by Georges Visat, Paris. Anselmino 21. Contained in the original blindstamped folder; folder heavily stained and foxed, the print slightly toned around the sheet edges, else very fine. 

Man Ray’s 1923 painted portrait of Marcel Duchamp, on which this print is based, demonstrates Man Ray’s thoroughly interdisciplinary approach to making art and the extent to which photography influenced his painting. He wrote that he “set about to do a portrait of [Duchamp] in oils, but, influenced by the many photographic portraits I had made of him, the work was in black and sepia, mimicking a photograph. I had him pose for me once or twice to verify some details in his features. I introduced some imagined motives in the black background so that the painting was not too factual. It was neither a painting nor a photograph; the confusion pleased me and I thought this should be the direction my future painting would take” (Self Portrait, p. 186).

The words “Cela Vit” inscribed over a rose in the lower right corner are a punning reference to Duchamp’s alter-ego, Rrose Sêlavy.