Self-Portrait with Adrienne Fidelin (Primary Title)
Man Ray, American, 1890 - 1976 (Artist)
Adrienne “Ady” Fidelin (1915–2004), a dancer and artist’s model from the French-governed Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, was the first Black model to appear in a major American fashion magazine when Harper’s Bazaar published Man Ray’s portrait of her in its September 1937 issue. Born Casimir Joseph Adrienne Fidelin in Pointe-à-Pitre, a city on the island of Grande-Terre in Guadeloupe, she moved with her family to France after a catastrophic hurricane struck Guadeloupe on September 12, 1928. Man Ray met Ady, as he affectionately called her, on a beach in Antibes while vacationing in the South of France during the summer of 1936. They became romantically involved the following year and this double portrait, taken in the late summer of 1937 on the Île Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes, captures their happiness together as an adoring Man Ray, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, gazes at the beautiful young woman beside him. The couple remained together until shortly after the German invasion of France in 1940. As a Jewish modern artist, Man Ray could not safely remain in Paris under the Nazi occupation and returned to the United States in June 1940, effectively ending their relationship, although he and his family continued to send Ady provisions during World War II.
Photographer's studio stamp in gray ink on verso: "Man Ray Rue/ Du Val de Grace/ Paris France/ Danton 92 [faded illegible]".
Inscribed in graphite on verso: "(1935)/ Ex-Collection Paul Eluard. (with Ady)/ Note: At Cannes...".
Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment
Man Ray: The Paris Years, VMFA, October 30, 2021 – February 21, 2022
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