Nusch Éluard, c. 1930

Born Maria Benz, Nusch Éluard (1906–1946) was a French performer, model, and Surrealist artist. Though she is perhaps best known as the wife and muse of poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952), Nusch was a prominent figure herself amongst top Surrealist artists like Max Ernst (1891-1976), Joan Miro (1893-1983), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), and Man Ray (1890-1976).

Nusch was the subject of many important Surrealist and Modernist works including several portraits by Picasso and her husband Paul’s photogravure book Facile, a collection of his poetry illustrated with portraits of Nusch taken by Man Ray. Out of their elite circle of friends, Man Ray and his wife Ady Fidelin were perhaps closest with Nusch and Paul, frequently taking trips together and collaborating on each of their artistic projects. According to Timothy Baum, New York art dealer and close friend of Man Ray, her death of a stroke at age 40 was a “hammer-blow” to the group (The Guardian, 2010).

This elegant portrait inscribed ‘a – Germaine’ was originally gifted by Man Ray to his dear friend and iconic photographer, Germaine Krull (1897-1985). During Krull’s time in Paris, the two developed a deep friendship, producing individual yet parallel work in fashion, portraiture, and photomontage. Later, Man Ray famously named Krull his artistic equal, writing “Germaine, you and I are the greatest photographers of our time, I in the old sense you in the modern one.”

There are two other known prints of this image, both in private collections. The full negative, of which the image is cropped from, is housed at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris.